


When it all falls apart

by Dark_K



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Confused feels, Derek has a kid, F/M, Fluff, If only people talked, Kid!Fic, M/M, Manpain, Slow Build, Stiles is a kindergarten teacher, future!fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-09-23
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2017-11-14 20:29:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/519229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_K/pseuds/Dark_K
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It would be great to say it happened gradually, that it occurred slowly, and that, one day, Stiles woke up and realized he didn’t have the same friends anymore, but that’s not how it happened, because this was real life and things never happen in simple ways in real life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> So… one more for you, guys! I hope you enjoy it! This is a future!fic, but the first two parts are basically setting for the rest of it.  
> Hope you like it!

****

**When it all falls apart**

**Chapter One**

It would be great to say it happened gradually, that it occurred slowly, and that, one day, Stiles woke up and realized he didn’t have the same friends anymore, but that’s not how it happened, because this was real life and things never happen in simple ways in real life.

It happened suddenly, fast and achingly bitter, in a way he wasn’t expecting, and yet he was – he had always been.

It happened because Scott told Derek they should join forces to take out the Alpha pack and left him out of it. It happened when he realized, alone at home, late at night, that he wasn’t a part of Scott’s pack. If he was, he would have known their plans, he would have been able to warn his father to stay away from any calls of disturbance near the woods. It happened because he wasn’t informed enough, and his dad was hurt because of it.

It happened because his best friend didn’t trust – or maybe didn’t need – him now that he knew he had Isaac on his side, that he had Allison back from her psychotic ways.

And he wasn’t free from the blame, he knew it as well as Scott did, because he didn’t think Allison was all that great anymore, and yes, he thought Scott was actually dumb for getting back together with her. And Scott had read it all wrong, and thought Stiles was jealous – and he was! But not of Allison, of _Isaac_ , his new wolfy friend.

He just thought that Allison would end up killing Scott, but, apparently, he didn’t have a voice when it came to Allison, and their fight was awful, and Scott said awful things, and Stiles said awful things, and they… fell apart. They fell apart in a way Stiles didn’t know was possible, because Scott was his _best friend_ , he’d die for him, almost did a number of times, but when it came down to it, Scott would always put everyone before Stiles and he was sick and tired of it.

And he was tired of all the small ways Scott made clear for him that _he wasn’t pack_.

He was tired of the disappointed looks he got from his dad, and the way the man seemed to be always waiting for something awful to happen to him. He was tired of having no backup, no one to turn to and be the one his best friend only remembered when he needed something.

He was tired.

And the Alpha mess was the last drop of it, because his dad had gotten hurt, and Scott wanted him to lie, and he’d do it, of course he’d do it, but just because he didn’t want his dad to lose his sanity completely, and not because Scott was asking, because Scott, apparently, couldn’t care less about his dad.

That’s when the fight started, in the corridor of the hospital, with his dad asleep a few feet away. He called Scott a shitty friend for not wanting his back up, and told him he was stupid for getting back together with Allison, and for trusting her, and for believing Isaac, and for forgetting about him. And Scott said he was only human, and he couldn’t fight, he was a nuisance in a fight, he wasn’t help.

He was weak.

And that was it, the end of their friendship in a hospital corridor, at three in the morning, when the Sheriff had broken his left arm after being thrown against a tree by some animal he couldn’t identify.

Stiles had had enough, and he wouldn’t apologize to Scott until he did it first.

The thing is Scott never did it.

And that was the end of it.

His father is back home the very next day, and Stiles tries to act normally around him while he’s still on painkillers. His dad knows Stiles lied to him about why Scott was the one who found him in the woods, and Stiles knows he knows, but this is it – Stiles has had it, and Scott could have apologized but didn’t, and Stiles just wants this whole… mess to be _over_.

He gets into his dad’s room late at night again, after spending the whole day trying to think of ways to do this. He decides that blunt honesty is the best way to go, seeing as the lying road is pretty much what is destroying the once amazing relationship he had with his dad.

He sits on the man’s bed and looks down, sighing. His dad muted the TV he had been staring at, and stares at Stiles instead, his face telling the boy his father is expecting another barrel of lies to come out of his mouth.

Well, not today.

“I’ve been lying to you. These last few months. You know it, and I know you know it, and I think it was amazing of you not to despair of me more than you did, and I am really, really, really sorry. There’s not enough sorry in the world to excuse what I did, and I know that.”

He takes a breath and looks at his dad to see him staring back, a bit hopeful.

Not all is lost.

“I can’t tell you what’s been going on, most of all because it’s not _my_ secret to tell” He stares at his dad, and sees the man is looking disappointed again, as if he’s having his heart crushed by his son one more time, “But I can promise you it’s over. It’s… over. It’s done. I’m done with all of that, and I’m done with Scott’s messes, and I’m done with trying to help. I’m… done” he finishes, fighting a few tears that are threatening to fall. He looks up, into his father’s eyes before speaking again, “No more lying. Not anymore.”

His dad doesn’t say anything, and that is a sign that it’ll take time for him to believe Stiles, but it’s a start. He sighs, and pulls his son in for a hug, and Stiles’ arms tighten around his dad.

He’s done.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loads of information in this chapter, but I have ten years to cover, so bear with me – it won’t be this rushed in the actual plot.  
> I hope you guys enjoy it!

**When it all falls apart**

**Chapter Two**

Stiles is prepared to spend the rest of his summer completely alone. After the whole Alpha fiasco, there’s still about a month of summer holidays left, and he knows Scott is too offended to apologize, and if he’s honest with himself, he doesn’t really want him to. Scott apologizing would mean Stiles would have to forgive him and then break his heart – he’s done, he doesn’t want to be the sidekick in his own life, he doesn’t want to put Scott first, he wants to be the main character of his own storyline, and that means he really needs to stay away from Scott.

Which means he has to stay away from everybody else because they’re all a big happy pack all over again – or that’s what he thinks until the night Jackson Whittemore knocks on his door. Stiles is really confused when he sees Jackson there, and the blond looks just as uncomfortable, but Stiles invites him in, and the boy is polite to his dad, and asks to talk to Stiles in private.

“If this is about your little gang with Hale, I’m out. I’m having nothing to do with it anymore” Stiles says firmly, and he can sense more than see his dad looking at him a bit proudly.

“No” Jackson says, sounding not exactly humble, but at least not as much of a jerk, “Quite the opposite, actually” he finishes, and Stiles frowns at him before inviting him to his room.

Turns out that, unsurprisingly, Jackson isn’t good in a pack environment. Scott, apparently, had finally bowed his head to Derek, and after being rescued, Erica and Boyd were a part of Derek’s pack again – that made Derek’s pack a big one, what with five betas and a human, because where Scott goes, Allison goes, even if Stiles thinks they’re all stupid, the girl tried to kill them all, but okay, not his business – but Jackson doesn’t know how to play in a large group of people.

It had never been his plan to be a pawn to Derek, anyway – his aim at being a werewolf was always to be a lone wolf, but his experience with Derek’s pack, however short, had made him see that being an Omega wasn’t good.

“I just want to know how Scott did it” he says, after letting Stiles know he’s left the Hale pack, “How he managed to still be a Beta, or at least not go Omega, without an Alpha, or a pack.”

Stiles stares at Jackson, and he thinks about it for a bit, because he doesn’t know what helping Jackson will entail. He doesn’t want to be the one Derek comes after when Jackson kills everyone in town in a fit of rage for going rogue, and at the same time, he thinks there’s something more to it than Jackson not knowing how to play in a team. When he voices his suspicions to Jackson the blond gets this tight set of his jaw, as if it pains him to be talking to Stiles, but he stares Stiles down and admits that, yes, there is.

There’s Lydia, and there’s the fact that Peter Hale is still very much a part of Derek’s pack, and that through him, Lydia would be pack too, and she can’t take it.

So he’s leaving, at risk of being alone and weak, so that she won’t have to suffer.

He actually says he’s put her through too much already, and that’s what makes Stiles decide to try and help him, within reason, because it’s Lydia, and even if he knows he’ll never have a chance with her, he wants her to be happy.

That’s how much of a sap he is.

“Scott had me. And Allison” he says simply, shrugging a bit, “We were there for him, I guess, and that made us a makeshift pack for him, while it lasted. He was never Omega because he had a pack, even if the rest of it were human-only.”

Jackson is pensive after this, and he stares at Stiles speculatively for a few seconds.

“Do you think Lydia and Danny would be enough?” he asks, and Stiles shrugs again.

“I really don’t know. I just remember it was something Derek said once.”

Jackson nods, and he looks like he wants to ask or say something else, but he doesn’t. He does say _thank you_ , looking as if that’ll haunt him forever, and it makes Stiles smile a little bit.

“You’ll be fine” Stiles ends up saying, when they are at the door, “Lydia is probably worth more than all of the people in their little gang” he jokes, and Jackson snorts.

“Not _your_ little gang anymore either” Jackson says rather than asks, and Stiles just shakes his head, remembering Scott telling him he didn’t need him anymore.

“I don’t think I ever was” he replies, and Jackson nods at him again, leaving in his shiny Porsche.

He’s got the girl, the car and the super powers, and Stiles’s got… nothing.

When his dad passes by him, heading to the kitchen, and squeezes his shoulder for a moment, though, Stiles smiles. Not really nothing if he can have his relationship with his dad back.

The next day his dad is back at work and Stiles fully expects to spend the whole day by himself, completely alone, and that’s fine. He should get used to it, anyway. He plans on sleeping in, having something ridiculously unhealthy for lunch, and play Assassin’s Creed till his dad gets back for dinner, and that’s it.

No big plans, no running around the woods, no trying to get that idiot’s friendship back, because he’s done with the lying thing. He has to be.

That’s why he’s honestly surprised when at about three in the afternoon the doorbell rings, and when he answers, there’s Lydia Martin. He stares at her, open mouthed, and she sighs irritably, throwing her long hair over her shoulder.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

“Sure! I’m sorry, come in!” he says, his voice fast and confused, because what the hell was she doing here? “Do you want anything to drink? Soda, water, coffee, tea?” he offers and she smiles a bit at him, the same smile she had when she looked for him before the whole Kanima disaster, when she thought Jackson was dead, almost two months ago.

“Just water is fine” she answers, shrugging, and then she follows him to the kitchen, sitting on one of the chairs. Stiles hands her a glass with iced water, and takes one for himself, sitting too.

“Jackson told me he was here yesterday, talking to you about his whole… abandoning the Hale pack thing” he just nods, waiting for her to say what she wants to say, “Do you really think he’ll be fine without a pack?”

She looks a bit insecure, and Stiles has to try really hard to define if she’s really feeling that, or if she’s using that look because she knows it’ll get to him.

He can’t quite decide.

“As far as I can tell, all he needs is an anchor. You’re it. You were enough to make him turn into the werewolf he was supposed to be, it’ll certainly be enough for him to have an anchor when the full moon comes. I’d recommend it for you to be away, and him locked up, but I think you guys will be fine. If it looks like it’s not working, just tell him Scott did it – that’ll make him want to be better than Scott.”

Lydia laughs a little at that, and Stiles smiles back, feeling a bit of the ache from the past few days ease away from him. He’s feeling awful, and every time he tries to think about what happened he feels _wrong_.

He hates being like this with Scott, and yet he knows he can’t go back to the way things were.

It hurts too much, hearing you’re not needed.

“Something happened to you, Stiles” Lydia says and he shrugs in answer, not quite knowing what to say to that.

It was the truth, but what could he say? It’s not like she was his friend for him to spill his guts for her, was it?

“Don’t you want to talk about it?” she offers, and her tone is not annoyed or impatient, it’s actually kind.

“Why would you want to hear it?” he asks a bit suspiciously, but he has a right to be, and she looks at him, her head tilted to the side a bit.

“You were willing to listen to me when no one else was. I’m willing to do the same. That’s what friends do, right?”

Stiles can’t decide if he’s happy or miserable about it, because he gets to be her friend, and maybe he won’t be so alone anymore, but at the same time she’s also making it clear that they’re friends, and will never be anything else – not that he hadn’t got _that_ memo with the whole love saving Jackson thing.

“I got into a fight with Scott, because he didn’t tell me about his plans with Derek for the Alpha pack thing” he says carefully, and Lydia nods.

“What else? You wouldn’t be this upset if that was it.”

He looks away for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts, because he himself is having a hard time _getting_ what the big deal was.

“Mainly it was because my dad got hurt. If he had told me, I would have found a way to keep him out of it, to keep him safe. And by not doing that, Scott was indirectly responsible for my dad getting hurt” he takes a deep breath, and Lydia waits, he looks down at the table, picking on the small droplets of water on his glass, “But it’s… it’s more than that. It’s how he never thinks about anything else other than himself and Allison. Actually, it’s how he _got back together_ with Allison. And I don’t know if you know this, but she tried to kill Derek, seriously kill him” he looks at Lydia again, “Her grandfather tortured me. That’s why I was that bruised in the night we thought Jackson was dead. Actually, _he_ was the one who ordered Jackson to gut himself in the middle of the field. And she was helping. Scott can’t see past his love for Allison, but she hurt so many people. And then there’s Isaac there too, and they’re hanging out, and Scott just… forgot about me. And my dad…” he takes a deep breath before continuing, and Lydia actually put her hand over his on the table top, “Ever since my mom died, we had this really nice relationship. Of course we both screwed up, but not as much, and not as badly, as it could have been. I took care of him, and his health, and he put up with me, and being around Scott and that lot, it was making me lose it. My dad wouldn’t be able to take the lies for much longer, and I was tired of it” he looks at her, his eyes wet, but he refuses to actually cry in front of Lydia, “He also told me he doesn’t need me anymore. That I’m useless in a fight. So I guess the whole thing was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, you know?”

Lydia stares at him for a moment, before snorting delicately, and shaking her head.

“You just want to be normal again, don’t you?”

He stares at her and is about to agree with it, but then he thinks about, really thinks about it, and shakes his head.

“No, that’s not really it. I’m a hyperactive kid, who no one really likes all that much. I’m not sure I could ever _be_ what people call normal, and that’s not it, that’s not the problem. I just want to… belong. Somewhere. _I_ want to belong. And I thought Scott was my friend, and that I belonged with him and his pack, but I’m not pack. I’m not a part of it, and Scott is the one who made it so. I want to be me, and I want to be the one who matters in my own life. I’m… I’m tired of being a shadow.”

When he finishes speaking, Lydia is staring at him with something aching to pity, but it’s gone on a second, and she nods at him, as if coming to a decision.

“I understand” she says simply, and he doesn’t think she truly does, he can’t remember a time when Lydia wasn’t the star of the school, but he also knows there’s more to her than pretty looks, so he doesn’t say anything else.

She leaves soon after that, and Stiles is once again convinced he’s going to spend the rest of the summer alone.

That changes when the next morning his dad is banging on his door, at eight am, telling him his friends are waiting for him. Stiles thinks about asking him to tell Scott he doesn’t want to see him, but decides against it, he should fight his own battles.

When he gets to the door, Jackson and Danny are there, waiting for him, dressed up in lacrosse practice uniforms.

“If you want to keep up whatever it is you did at the last game, you need to practice more” Jackson says as a way of greeting, and Danny actually smiles at his incredulous face, “Danny tells me you kicked some ass at the final game, but I’m not buying that until I see it with my own eyes. So come on, we’re training” he finishes, shouldering past him into the house, and sitting in the couch, “We’re wasting time, Stilinski, grab your stuff and let’s go.”

Maybe it was the shock, but Stiles actually went, put on his uniform, brushed his teeth, grabbed a protein bar as a makeshift breakfast and left with Jackson and Danny to the field.

He doesn’t question why or how they’re doing this, and when Lydia shows up at about eleven am to oversee their practice, and waves at him, smiling, he knows she’s the one behind this.

He wants to say he doesn’t need pity-friendships, and that he doesn’t want to be the new sidekick for Jackson’s wolf instead of Scott’s, but Jackson doesn’t use his powers to play, and Danny doesn’t know anything about it, and Lydia is really nice, and Jackson turns out to actually possess a sense of humor, even if it’s mostly at the expense of someone else.

Stiles actually enjoys his day, grabbing lunch with the other three at a diner, and then going home, with Jackson’s promise – or maybe threat – of picking him up the next day, at the same time.

He likes it, this spending time out of the house thing, and the next day he’s ready when they come for him, and Lydia comes to the field at about the same time again. Danny is nice and friendly, and Stiles is really trying to focus on getting better and Jackson and Danny actually help him out a lot – he’s not that bad when someone points out his mistakes for him so that he can correct them. They fall into a routine, and Stiles is glad. The first few times Lydia and Jackson kiss around him he gets this tight knot in his gut, but it eases when he starts to see that Lydia is an amazing friend. He loves her still, but it’s changing, and he’s happy about it.

His dad tries to be discreet about it, but he always asks where Stiles is going, and once or twice he sees his dad’s car passing by the school field, as if to check he’s really there, and he guesses he deserves it. But it starts to get easier between them, because Stiles is actually out of trouble, and he genuinely likes Danny and Lydia, and even Jackson, even if that takes a lot of time to get used to.

About three weeks into their last month of holidays he and Danny trade exasperated looks every time Lydia and Jackson start their make out session, and when the full moon comes, he holds a sleep over – with Lydia and Danny at his place.

Jackson is at home, alone, and he texts them all night long, sometimes talking to Lydia just to hear her voice. It’s hard, but it isn’t harder than sitting by Scott’s door, listening to him describe his kiss with the girl he was in love with.

They survive, and there’s not a body count, so they count it as a win.

He kind of realizes, a few days later, that they’re a sort of a pack again – but these people actually care about _themselves_ first. They just want to make it through high school, date and have fun. They have their problems, and their traumas, but they’re actually _good people_ , and everything is so much easier with them.

Stiles finally sees he’s actually happy around them – happier than he can remember being around Scott for the last _year_.

A few days after their first full moon, Jackson tells him Derek showed up at his place, asking him to come back to the pack. Knowing Derek, Stiles bets there was a lot of growling and threats involved, but Jackson denied him. He’s got an anchor, and he’s got friends to keep him sane enough he won’t go rogue, and there’s nothing Derek can do about it to make him change his mind.

It’s only when Jackson hangs up that Stiles realizes Jackson included him in his friends.

And it feels really good, even if losing Scott sucks.

He doesn’t see Scott, which is really weird. He doesn’t see Erica, Boyd, Isaac or Allison either, and one day, when they’re at the mall – Danny and Jackson at some music store, him and Lydia walking though the dress section at Macy’s, because he has no problem with helping her shop -, he asks her about Allison, and Lydia looks down for a bit, before shrugging.

“I think what happened between me and Allison is pretty much what happened with you and Scott, only way less intense, because we weren’t friends for that long. I know I’m not a role model for adjustment, but her relationship with Scott is just not healthy, and I got tired of never having a friend when I needed to, and always having to be there when she needed.”

Sties snorts at that, because hell if he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and she looks at him with her eyes narrow.

“What do you think of Danny?”

Stiles is a bit lost with her question, because what’s that got to do with anything? but he shrugs as an answer.

“I think he’s pretty awesome.”

She just smiles, and Stiles feels a little afraid of whatever is coming.

What is coming is a party given by some guy from school, that a few months back he’d never get invited to. He runs it by his dad, and gets a green light to attend – his dad’s trust is actually coming back – and it’s only when Danny comes by his door to pick him up that he realizes Lydia is trying to set them up.

He’s offended for about two seconds until he realizes _Danny_ is willing to pick him up, and Danny is not a push over, he’d never do something like this if he didn’t want to, not even with Lydia bullying him.

They have a great time at the party, and Danny is cute and funny, and Stiles tries not to be a total spazz, and they get along just fine. The whole crowd of people in the party eyes him a little confusedly, because since when does Stilinski hang out with the likes of Lydia Martin and Jackson Whittemore, but it’s okay because Danny gives them the stinky eye and they look away.

When Danny takes him home, with ten minutes to spare in his one o’clock curfew, Stiles looks at him and kisses his cheek, feeling girly and stupid, but Danny smiles at him when he pulls away, and draws him closer, kissing him on the lips softly. Stiles forgets to close his eyes, but Danny smiles at him.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to” the older boy says to him, smiling all the time, gentle and caring, “We can still be friends” his hands are on Stiles’s waist, and Stiles leans against him a bit more, shaking his head.

“That’s not it, I just… I never…”

“Kissed a guy?” Danny asks, and Stiles smiles at him.

“More like never kissed anyone. Unless you count getting kissed by Tara Noble on sixth grade on a dare as a kiss.”

He’s still smiling, though, because he knows Danny won’t judge him, and the other boy doesn’t disappoint him, leaning closer for another kiss.

“Guess we’ll have to practice this too, then” Danny says against his lips kissing him again. Still small and gentle, but with a promise of a lot more.

He leaves, and Stiles gets in with a huge smile on his face to find his dad staring at him, eyebrow raised.

“You didn’t tell me this was a date” he says, and Stiles shrugs, smiling sheepishly at him.

“To be honest, neither did I. Lydia set us up, and I didn’t know” he explains, and his dad shakes his head, “Is it okay, though? I mean, it’s Danny, so…”

His dad smiles at him and says it is okay, as long as he doesn’t start sneaking around or doing anything illegal, and only part of it is a joke. Those months back will haunt their relationship for years to come, but Stiles is decided to make his dad proud.

They still practice Lacrosse in the morning, and grab lunch together a few times a week, but now his afternoons are full of Danny, and with Danny come kisses and hot make out sessions, and he just loves it. Sometimes they go out with Jackson and Lydia, and sometimes they stay on their own – they play video games and eat junk food, and they make out in Danny’s room and on his couch when his dad has the night shift, and the Sheriff starts to smile at him again like he used to, before he got his dad temporarily fired and nothing he told him was the truth.

Summer ends, and Stiles is dreading going back to school, because seeing Scott will be unavoidable then. It’s just because Danny will be there, and Lydia and Jackson, that he doesn’t fall apart, and when the first day of school comes around, he’s glad Danny offered to pick him up instead of having him drive there by himself.

It happens sooner than he realized it would, because they are just getting out of Danny’s car and Scott and Allison are passing by, hand in hand. Scott looks at him with a face like he’s got a belly ache, and Stiles looks away. Danny smiles at him reassuringly, and takes his hand, pulling him to the other side of the lot, where Jackson and Lydia are just arriving. They greet their friends, and Lydia gives them a kiss on the cheek, and Stiles doesn’t look back – he doesn’t have to look back to know the whole pack is coming into the school together.

It doesn’t take long to spread along the gossip mill that Stiles and Scott’s epic friendship is over, and that he now hangs out with Jackson, and Lydia and Danny. It also doesn’t escape anyone’s notice that he and Danny are together, and they are okay with that.

Things are _normal_ , and he’s fine. He’s happy.

When the first Lacrosse practice of the year rolls around, Stiles gets self-conscious while changing, because he can feel Danny’s eyes on him all the time, and he smiles at his boyfriend – and what a strange concept that is – before going out in the field. He asks to try for first line, and the coach lets him do it – partly because he remembers how he played at the final, and partly because he truly needs someone, as Scott’s grade were so bad last year he can’t come back to the team right away. He gets the position by the skin of his teeth, and he’s so excited he jumps Danny when he comes to congratulate him, and kisses him in the middle of the field.

There are a few catcalls, and Jackson’s shout of _gross_ , but he doesn’t care – he has a gorgeous boyfriend, he’s friends with Lydia, he’s first line in the Lacrosse team, and he hasn’t been about to die in more than a month.

Things are looking up.

When they are leaving the field, Isaac congratulates him on his being first line, and he thanks the guy, but doesn’t talk to him more than that. Scott doesn’t even look his way, glancing at Danny and Jackson with betrayal in his eyes, and Stiles can’t quite decide if he’s feeling betrayed by him or by Jackson for having abandoned their pack.

Probably both.

Scott doesn’t come back to the Lacrosse team, and they hardly ever see each other.

They keep their distance, and things at school settle down.  It’s clear that there are two groups where for a few weeks last year there had been one, and the rumors are wild – people saying Stiles was actually with Scott, and they broke up because of Allison, and that’s why they aren’t talking. Some people saying that Allison wanted to be with Lydia, and when she didn’t want her, they fought.

Everything was absurd and ridiculous, and not even close to the truth, but it was okay.

Things settle down after a few weeks, and everyone is happy enough. Sometimes the Hale pack comes to school with bags under their eyes, and there are definitely weird things going on – the first time someone shows up dead, Stiles’ father is obviously taking it as a trial for his son. But Stiles doesn’t go out, he calls Lydia and Jackson and Danny, and sets up a movie marathon, and the boys manage to convince Lydia to watch something other than The Notebook, and when his dad comes home at almost four in the morning, he finds his son asleep on top of his boyfriend in the living room, with their friends asleep on top of each other on the other couch.

He smiles, turns off the TV and covers the teenagers with blankets before going to bed.

They don’t get involved with pack stuff, and sometimes Scott looks at Stiles as if he wants to ask for help, but they never do. They don’t approach Jackson either, which is good, because things sometimes get shaky with him, and he still has problems with his parents, and he has enough to deal with without being a part of Derek Manpain Hale’s pack.

The school year flies by, and Stiles manages to get great grades, because not having to worry about his life on the line does great things to his academic performance. He’s not the star of the Lacrosse team, but he’s one of the good ones, and plays first line all year long. They win finals, and Jackson throws a huge party to celebrate it – the same night he can celebrate losing his virginity to his boyfriend, because Danny’s parents are out for the weekend, and they can be alone.

Summer passes by fast, in a blur of training, a few outings with his friends, spending time with his dad, and actually going away for a week to Jackson’s parents’ beach house with him, Lydia and Danny.

Senior year comes, and Stiles and Lydia start freaking out to the amusement of their respective boyfriends, because they don’t know where they want to go, even if they want to be near each other. Lydia finally decided on MIT, and that kind of makes up all of their minds, because they just want to be near – Danny goes for Computer Science in MIT with Lydia, and Jackson goes for Pre-Law in Brandeis with Stiles, where the last pursues a degree in teaching.

They work their butts off, and they don’t even seem to notice when the other pack in town misses school, or isn’t around, or show up at school looking broken and beaten up. Stiles sees, but he refuses to be dragged in – things are good, and he’s happy, and he has a place now, a pack.

They get into college in early admissions, and they _know_ a lot of the teachers gave them great recommendations, and, for the boys, their places in the Lacrosse team certainly didn’t hurt.

Lydia is valedictorian, and the three boys are proud of her. They get medals for Academic and Sports Achievements, and even if misses his dad like never before, off they go to college.

They come home whenever is possible, and Jackson bugs Stiles until he accepts to use his frequent flier privileges, because he and his dad aren’t really rolling in money. They are home for Thanksgiving, and Easter and Christmas and Summer Holidays, and they are doing great.

His dad starts dating this therapist in his first year at college, and they get married at the end of his fourth semester. Scott is at the wedding, and Melissa, but Stiles doesn’t even try to make contact with them.

He and Danny are fine. They are more than fine, they are great – he’s happier than he can ever remember being ever since his mom died, and he likes to think he makes Danny happy too.

Lydia and Jackson fight a lot, but they love each other, and the four of them are kind of decided not to go back to Beacon Hills after they graduate. They set up apartments in Portland, which is close enough they can visit frequently, but it’s not their little town. Jackson and Lydia’s place is a huge apartment, and Danny and Stiles share a loft. They have their jobs, and they are happy.

Things change, though.

Stiles would like to say it happened because this is his life, and nothing good ever lasts, but good things have actually lasted for him in the past eight years. He loves Danny quite a lot, and when the phone call comes, because he was listed as the emergency contact in his information, his whole body freezes.

Danny is dead.

In a car crash.

He can barely function for days after the thing happened. They fly back to Beacon Hills for the funeral, and the burial and the wake, and Danny’s mom clings to Stiles like a lifeline. He hugs her back, and Danny’s dad put his arms around them both, letting them cry.

That night, when he gets home, his dad’s wife, Vanessa, pulls him in a hug, but it’s only when he has his dad’s arms around him that he lets it all go, sobbing like he hadn’t done in a long, long while.

He decides to come back to Beacon Hills, because he can’t be in that apartment without Danny, and Lydia and Jackson understand him better than anyone, and support his decision.

He finds himself a little apartment, just enough for him, rejects his dad’s offer of living with him and Vanessa, because that’d be just weird, and tries to find a job.

His life is quiet for a whole year after that. Jackson and Lydia come home once a month, at least, and he talks to them a lot on the phone during that time. Danny’s parents move away, but they keep in touch with Stiles, and he goes over to his dad’s place for Friday night dinners and Sunday lunches. He avoids pretty much everyone who isn’t family or Jackson and Lydia for a whole year.

When the school year begins, though, and he receives his newest class of three year olds to teach, he has a surprise.

Because on the roll call there’s a little girl by the name of Laura Hale.

And his whole world is about to change because of it.

**X**

Derek has actually lost count of how many times Peter bemoans the fact that he bit Scott instead of Stiles. It started a little after his return from the dead, and continued over the years, until the time when Allison finally abandoned them – even if she was never really _theirs_ as much as Scott was _Allison’s_ and everyone always knew that wouldn’t end well.

When the Alpha pack showed up, Derek was still lost at the whole being an Alpha thing – he was never prepared for that, and he didn’t know how to build a pack. Even being a sassy, sarcastic, annoying know-it-all, Peter actually helped him get through that, but Derek knew even before it happened that he’d lose Jackson because of his uncle’s presence.

He never counted on losing Stiles as well, but that was on Scott, not him.

He never really understood what went on in the head of that boy, and all he could gather was that he had tunnel vision when it came to Allison, and Stiles had offended her somehow. However, if Derek could forgive her trying to _kill him_ , why couldn’t Scott forgive Stiles?

Later, months later, after a gruesome fight, when Scott is trying to hold back tears while stitching up Boyd, he confesses he made the whole thing worse on purpose. He wanted Stiles to hate him, because he was destroying his best friend’s life. And it broke his heart to see him sad, but it broke it even more when he realized how _happy_ Stiles was with his new friends. He was safe and happy with Lydia and Danny and even Jackson, and Scott was suffering, but he’d do it for Stiles.

He’d do anything for his best friend, even drive him away from them.

From that night on, it became the Pack’s unspoken rule they wouldn’t involve any of the others in their fights and battles, they would protect them. As the years went by, Derek and his pack fought a lot of weird things, sometimes wolves, sometimes humans, sometimes things in between, but they never let it affect the other pack, as they thought of them, even if they didn’t have an Alpha. They fought while the others played Lacrosse and won championships; and they had to keep it together, having rogue wolves to fight, while the other four kids that one day they looked at as pack were studying for their exams, and deciding to go to MIT and Brandeis together, and receiving medals for Academic and Sports Achievements.

It wasn’t fair, but Derek felt as if his pack, his little band of misfits, was actually living vicariously through that other group, and he couldn’t begrudge them that.

When the other pack graduated, they were popular, they were happy, and, most of all, they were safe.

It was more than what could be said for _his_ pack, but in a certain way Derek could tell his kids felt accomplished by the others’ happiness. More than once they had to chase away something after Jackson that thought him weak for being a lone wolf. They had to protect Stiles’ dad, and Stiles’ himself, they had to protect Lydia for her immunity, and Danny for his association with the other three, but they managed it.

The other pack was happy, and safe, and popular, and clueless, and they let it happen.

The Hale pack didn’t go far for college, and in those years they actually developed their own kind of happiness – being away from Stiles, Jackson, Lydia and Danny was good for them, because they were, for once, being happy for things they were doing themselves. Things were quieter now that Derek had finally made a name of his own as an Alpha, hunters didn’t bother them as much, and creatures started to avoid Beacon Hills, because it was spoken for.

The second year in college for the teens was the first time Derek thought about dating, ever since the whole Kate Argent thing. She was older, dark skin and dark hair, gorgeous black eyes, a smile to die for, and he was kind of smitten so fast it wasn’t even funny. She was a human from a werewolf family, one of the few who didn’t carry the gene to be one, and she was a wild thing.

So wild that, when they found out that their carelessness had gotten her pregnant, two years after they started dating, she had thought of getting rid of the baby – she didn’t when he said he’d like to have a child and she did it more because she felt she was doing the right thing.

She didn’t want to be a mother though, so when Laura Hale was born, Nicole left, promising not to bother him again.

He felt lost with a small child in the pack, _his_ small child, and his pack had college, so he had to get the hang of things by himself, mostly.

It was by the time Nicole found out about her pregnancy that Peter decided to leave, to go away, maybe travel, and not stay in Beacon Hills. Derek was kind of glad, because he would never be able to manage to trust the man again, and with his kid there it wouldn’t take long before he would have to either kill Peter or cast him out.

He heard from him once in a while, talking about packs on Alaska being much more fun than the ones on California, so, apparently, he was all set.

He finally took a final step and put the remnants of the old Hale house down, building something new in its place, bright and airy, with his child in mind.

Erica was the next one to leave, finding an Alpha who was passing by in a conference at her college, and, apparently, falling madly in love with him. She went away with Derek’s blessing, and sent news every week, phone calls and e-mails, about how happy she was.

Nicole was on her last month when Allison left them, and even if all of them were kind of preparing for it for _years_ it still hurt like hell, mostly because of Scott, who had lost so much already. She had never been really okay again after the whole thing with her mother, and her dad could see it. He couldn’t stay in Beacon Hills forever, and now that the Hales were back, he didn’t have an excuse to stay. When push came to shove, Allison chose her family, and Scott knew he couldn’t follow – he couldn’t abandon his pack any more than Allison could abandon her dad, and that was the end for both of them.

On one hand, Derek was glad it was over – watching them was like watching a disaster taking its time to happen, as if you could see every single crack in the building before it collapsed completely. They loved each other, that much was clear, but love isn’t always enough to make things _right_ with them.

He healed, little by little, graduated from college as a Veterinarian and helped Deaton in his business, gaining clientele and knowledge that went far beyond animal care.

Boyd was a broker, and he was doing really well at his job for someone so young, and Isaac had become a nurse, working at the hospital with Melissa as soon as he graduated.

And Derek… kind of became a stay at home dad, because his pack was formed only by young males, and he didn’t trust anyone else to be near his kid.

Laura was two when they heard about Danny’s accident, and Derek and Scott actually went to the burial, watching from afar. Stiles had become a man, Jackson and Lydia by his side, their arms around their friend as he cried. He had lost his mom and now his eight-year long boyfriend, and it wasn’t easy.

Scott contemplated talking to him again, but Isaac made him look at it from Stiles’ perspective, and that wouldn’t be good. Even if they knew Scott did what he did to protect Stiles, and that now that things were good maybe they could be friends again, to Stiles Scott had abandoned him for a girl, endangered his father and left his friendship for Isaac’s.

It didn’t look good.

They saw Stiles around town soon after that, and gathered he’d be staying.

When Laura was three, Derek decided, and was advised by Melissa, more than anyone else, that she needed to see other children, and he enrolled her at school. On the day of their first meet and greet with the teacher, his heart skipped a beat.

Because her teacher was Stiles. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So… what did you think?  
> Let me know!  
> REVIEW!


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to do something I really don’t like doing: I altered a little bit of the last chapter – Laura is three and not five. It’s nothing major, just ten words, but I thought I should let you guys know. Also, despite her age, I won’t attempt to do baby-speech in this. First because I have no idea how to, and second because I teach three year old kids who speak just fine – sure, they miss a few letters from time to time, but mostly correct all the way.

**When it all falls apart**

**Chapter Three**

Stiles lies in bed the night before the parent-teacher meeting before the first day of classes thinking about how he’s going to handle this – how is he going to face whoever Hale that child belongs to? Beacon Hills is small enough that the school office didn’t seem to find it important for the teachers to have a full list of students, just their full names – the parents would introduce themselves on the parent-teacher meeting and that’s it.

He had found it strange the year before when that had happened, because in Portland he worked in a sort of alternative, modern hipster school – it was hard to find a job teaching small kids if you’re openly gay, and the ambience at that school was different than what Stiles found in Beacon Hills, even if here he got way less crap about being out and proud.

He wasn’t even sure if he was really just gay or bisexual. He had been in love with Lydia, sure, but that was so long ago it seemed like a lifetime away. Danny had been… everything.

He had faced homophobic classmates at college, and gotten a lot of crap at some job interviews when he was asked about his home life, a wife or girlfriend as expected, but it had all been worth it, because it was _Danny_.

Now he didn’t have Danny, and his job was pretty much all he had focused on for the past year. He was good at it, he was good with kids, and he was good at teaching, so he found that in Beacon Hills, where most people still remembered him from his Lacrosse playing days, with a buzz cut, a boyfriend and being the Sheriff’s kid, being good at his job was actually enough for the parents to respect him.

You could say a lot of bad things about this town, but you could also say he had never lived in a more tolerant place, no matter how small it was.

He looked at the list again, feeling nervous about the meeting in the morning. He had a speech prepared, he’d outline what he planned to teach the kids and how, give his contact info to the parents and ask for theirs in return, ask for any specificities their kids had, if they had been taken to daycare previously, or if this was their first time away from their parents, just a few things to get to know his students before actually meeting them – the meeting was about the kids, not the parents, but _those parents there_ , these ones of Laura Hale, it was bugging him.

Had Peter reproduced? Jesus Christ, he wouldn’t have a child and then name her after the niece he had killed, would he? Had Derek had a kid? Who with, Erica? It seemed the only explainable option, because he couldn’t actually picture Derek going out and _meeting_ someone.

This wasn’t his life anymore, worrying about the Hales. He had left this behind almost ten years ago; he refused to be dragged back.

Sighing, he left the list of students on the nightstand and turned off the light. He should sleep to have a good meeting the next day.

His sleep was filled with strange dreams, full of Danny and werewolves and the woods around the Hale house, still charred and broken down, and a small kid with long blond hair like Erica’s, running around the burnt down place.

He woke up at five, covered in sweat, and decided to take a shower and get ready, even if the meeting was scheduled for nine o’clock, simply because he couldn’t sleep anymore.

One year, three months, seventeen days without Danny.

Lydia had called and told him, a few days earlier, that he should try to find someone, even if it wasn’t serious, and he hadn’t answered. When Jackson picked up the phone after she gave up on him, he had just said he understood him – they always thought they were _it_ for each other. Their friendship had had a strange beginning, but they loved each other, and for all those years they had been… _them_.

Four of them. They got through half their high school careers, all of college and Lydia’s and Jackson’s grad school, their first job interviews, their epic fights, their biggest hung-overs, their amazing parties, those days when they were feeling like crap, their insecurities, everything – together.

Now they were one person short – it was pretty much like losing a limb, a part of them they couldn’t get back, a hole that couldn’t be filled, no matter how much they tried. And he missed his friends. He couldn’t stay in Portland, and he missed his dad too, coming to Beacon Hills was, perhaps, something they had planned on doing later on, when he and Danny were married, probably planning the adoption of their first kid, and Jackson and Lydia had enough money to buy out the town if they wanted to, when they were all twenty-eight, like they had planned so many times, late at night, half-jokingly and half-serious, all of them sharing a mattress in someone’s dorm or apartment, watching crappy TV and eating junk food.

And now he was here much earlier, and completely alone.

One year, three months and seventeen days hadn’t been enough for Stiles to deal with it, to let it go – not yet.

He knew Lydia was right, that he should try to get out more, meet some people, maybe even look for some of their friends – not _his_ old friends, but theirs, from their senior year.

He just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He had joked with Jackson that maybe he needed them to have a social life again.

Jackson had answered he’d start preparing for the move right away.

Stiles wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not.

He got out of the shower, put some comfortable clothes, and set about making breakfast, eating before cleaning the whole kitchen, and getting ready to leave for school – sure he’d be there super early, but it was better than staying at home, twiddling his thumbs and dying of anxiety.

He got to his classroom, where the meeting would be held, at seven forty. Parents were supposed to arrive at nine.

He spent a good hour putting things in order – he had already hung all his new decorations, and had remembered to go by the bakery to bring some pastries for the meeting, the coffee in a big thermos the school provided him with. He put the brilliant, colorful paper cups he had brought from home on the table, set the pastries and cookies on the side, and put the chairs in a circle in the middle of the room.

The first couple arrived at fifteen to nine, followed by a mother, alone. They clearly had already met, talking animatedly about their kids to each other, and Stiles merely smiled and indicated the chairs for them.

At ten to nine, he heard steps on the corridor, and turned to look.

Derek Hale stood, dark, and tall and imposing, if a little less brooding, looking at him with an unreadable expression.

Stiles took a deep breath and smiled, nodding to a chair.

He was professional, he could deal with this.

**X**

“But why you have to go, daddy?” her eyes are full of tears, and it’s not fake or something like that. She really doesn’t understand why he has to leave, and Derek has to take a deep breath to strengthen himself, and look at both Scott and his mother so he will not to give up this whole pre-school thing.

“Because I need to meet your teacher, so I’ll know you’re in good hands, ok?” his voice is as soft as he can make it – and that’s a lot, because in his first days as a single farther he learned that gruffy and growly around a newborn baby just didn’t work in his favor.

She still looks as if she’s going to cry, though, and Melissa decides to intervene, saving him the trouble, and taking Laura to the living room to watch cartoons with her and Scott.

Scott gives him a comforting pat on the shoulder, and Derek half smiles at him in thanks. It’s not always that he can make someone help him with Laura, and he really needs to go to this meeting.

He feels bad when Scott wishes him luck with the teacher, because he hasn’t told him the teacher is Stiles. Stiles is, and always will be, a sore point for Scott – his decisions back then were hasty even if he was trying to do what was right, and Derek knows it still pains him to have lost his friend so completely, and it has been _completely_. Stiles has been living in Beacon Hills for over a year, and he has managed not to get in touch with any of the pack. A feat, because the town is really small, but Derek guesses he’s putting a lot of effort into it.

He’s not really sure how to deal with this either – he’s seen the name of the teacher in his info package, but it doesn’t seem _real_.

He drives to the school and gets there with ten minutes to spare. He takes a deep breath and goes to where the sign points him to, brilliant signs made with glitter, pointing to the pre-school classroom.

The man that seems to hesitate for a second before smiling at him is not the same boy who left all those years ago.

Stiles is slightly taller and more well-built than he used to be – of course, he wouldn’t be almost ten years older and still look like the kid who left Beacon Hills for Boston, but it’s… disconcerting. His buzz cut is gone, and his hair is slightly longer, just enough that it needs to be styled in the morning. He still has the same aura he used to, as if there’s not enough space for him and all of his expressions in his face, but he’s… darker, somehow. Nothing evil or bad, just… sadder.

Broken.

And then he remembers that Stiles is living in Beacon Hills because his boyfriend died a little over a year ago, and it does make sense for Stiles to be like that – not that it is any of Derek’s business because it isn’t.

Derek sits on one of the uncomfortable chair he’s pointed to and, fifteen minutes later, Stiles is closing his door and taking the only vacant chair in the room, smiling broadly at all the parents. He takes a minute to notice that, at least, he’s not the only one without a partner beside him.

“Good morning!” Stiles says cheerfully, and most of the parents smile back at him, because he _does_ know how to make it sound cheerful and bright, as if the darkness Derek had seen earlier has disappeared by sheer force of will, “I’m Stiles Stilinski, even if you’ll be hearing my name in slightly different ways for a few months. By the time your kids get to pronounce Mister Stilinski correctly they will be so used to whatever nickname they gave me I won’t be Mister Stilinski anymore.”

The parents laugh, and even Derek has to contain a smile, thinking about Laura struggling with the weird name of her new teacher.

“This meeting has the sole purpose of you getting to know me, and how I’ll be teaching your kids for the next school year. There will be, of course, slight changes along the way, but most of the year lesson plans is solid, and planned for effective work. The changes will happen individually sometimes, if one of the children needs more time to get something, or less to understand another – we’ll try to keep it at their pace, but not so distant that he or she won’t be able to follow the class. Arts and crafts, along with the actual class and their play time will be monitored by me, while the music, physical education and language class will be handled by our workshop handlers, who are wonderful people. Most of our staff is native, and as Beacon Hills is so small, you may already know most of them” he pauses, looking at the parents, smiling again, “I know it’s a lot of information, but this description part is mostly to acclimate you to what expect along the year – you’ll be following your child’s progress at the end of every class, through their class diary, and you can also feel free to call me, or talk to me at the beginning or end of every class, about any doubts, concerns or complaints you may have along the way” he pauses again, “Any questions?”

A few parents inquire about his qualifications and previous jobs, a specific couple laugh at him when they wish him luck with their kid, because their son is hyperactive, and the man used to be Stiles’ teacher in Middle School, and they remember what a nightmare that was. Stiles offers them honest answers, Derek can tell, because of the steady beat of his heart, smiling all the time, even when one of the women seems to think he’s too young for the job.

He makes a ten minute break, offering them coffee and pastries, before getting back in the circle.

“I would like to thank all of you for coming, and I hope we’ll talk more along the school year. I’m sure these kids are all amazing, and will be great students. For the second part, I just need for the parents whose kids haven’t yet been to daycares to stay, so we can talk about acclimatizing them.”

Most of the parents leave at that, only Derek and three couples staying behind. Two of them are soon sent home, because while their kids didn’t go to daycare daily, they had done learning activities out of home for a few months already, so they shouldn’t be a problem.

The last couple asks to talk to Stiles privately about their kid, eyeing Derek suspiciously, and the man looks at him apologetically before nodding.

They talk for about ten minutes, and then they leave – it’s only Stiles and Derek.

**X**

Well, he can definitely say now that it’s Beacon Hills that gives him his crappy luck – in all those years living far from here he’s never had one of these moments, as if someone is actually _planning_ to screw him over.

When the last couple leaves, he smiles a bit nervously at Derek, and then sits back on his chair, taking a sip of his now only slightly warm coffee.

“So, you’re Laura’s dad” he begins, smiling all the time, because this is a parent.

A parent who’ll leave his child with him for five hours, five days a week. He needs to trust Stiles, and if Stiles remembers correctly, Derek would rather kill someone than offer them his trust.

He knows it first hand, after all.

“Yes” he answers curtly, and Stiles wants to sigh. Oh my god, almost ten years is not enough for the man to learn how to communicate properly apparently, “She’s three, and she’s… a bit sheltered” he finally continues, and Stiles wants to cry in relief that he’s _talking_.

“She didn’t go to daycare, right?” Derek just shakes his head, and Stiles nods at him, “Well, there shouldn’t be any worries, a lot of kids don’t go to daycare, especially in a small town, where one of the parents can afford to stay at home with the kid, it’s pretty common. I’d like to offer you, though, the possibility of an acclimatizing week. You can come to school and stay around, maybe pick Laura up early. Your… Ahm, the other parent is welcome to come too” he almost said _wife,_ but then again, he’s not going to assume anything.

For all he knows, Derek kidnapped the kid.

It’s way more likely than going through the proper channels for having a kid, like meeting someone, dating them, sleeping together, having a kid.

“I’m a single parent.”

Stiles nods at that, as if he’s not completely shocked by it, and tries to keep calm, so that Derek won’t pick anything up – Jackson is completely under control, but he’s still a werewolf, and Stiles’s learned a few things over the years.

“Well, then, you can come and stay around for a few days – the only thing I do not allow is for the parent to be _in_ the classroom, because it wouldn’t be fair for any of the other children. If Laura gets distressed, or if she wants you near her, you’ll be close by. How does that sound?” he asks cheerfully, staring at Derek.

The man lets out a breath, as if he’s _worried sick_ about his kid alone at school, and almost smiles at Stiles.

“Thanks. I’ll do that.”

“Great! Any questions? Anything else you want to say?” Stiles is fully expecting him to say no, but then Derek seems to be steeling himself for something before speaking.

“When I say Laura is sheltered, I really mean it. She hasn’t had much contact with other kids, and the only adults she hangs around are…” he doesn’t say the word, but _Pack_ keeps floating on the air between them, and Stiles nods, understanding.

“Don’t worry about it. Kids always have a hard time adjusting to school, especially the ones who are used to stay at home, but give her a few weeks, and she’ll be in love with everything here.”

Derek nods and gets up at last, looking firmly at Stiles before offering his hand. Stiles shakes it and he leaves.

The teacher keeps staring at the door for a good five minutes before sighing and shaking his head.

He didn’t expect Derek to be civil, or to be okay with him teaching his kid. Well, he’d have to get used to it.

**X**

“Derek Hale has a kid.”

Lydia blinks when she hears that. She’s called Stiles to ask him how he’d feel about coming to Portland to spend the weekend with her and Jackson – she misses him, _Jackson_ misses him -, so she’s not expecting that announcement.

“What did you just say?”

“Derek Hale has a kid. She’s three, her name is Laura, and I’ll start teaching her tomorrow.”

Well, she was sure not expecting that.

“Oh, Stiles, what are you going to do?”

“Nothing? I mean, it’s just a kid, and I’m a professional. He says she’s sheltered, and at the parent-teacher meeting today, he was completely civil towards me. So I think that whatever happened in all these years, he’s at least not crazy with mad Alpha power anymore.”

“Still, you weren’t expecting that, were you? How did we _not_ know he has a kid? That’s Beacon Hills, everyone knows everything” she says, truly baffled.

“He says she’s sheltered, and I mean, werewolves are territorial” she huffs a small laugh at that, and can almost _see_ Stiles smiling on the other side of the line, “Maybe he didn’t take her anywhere. My dad didn’t say anything, and I know he’d have said something if he knew.”

“True,” she’s quiet for a moment, plans already altering in her head, “Listen, you take care with that crowd, okay? As far as we know, wherever they go, trouble follows, and we don’t need that.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m just… I don’t even know what I am. Scott and Allison’s kid? That I might be prepared for, but _Derek_? How did he reproduce? Who’s this woman? Because there _has_ to be a woman somewhere. He’s a single parent.”

Lydia closes her eyes in despair of a kid raised single handedly by Derek Hale and his amazing people skills.

“At least she must be pretty.” She hears Stiles laughing again, and smiles, even though he can’t see her, “Look, we’re going to Beacon Hills this weekend, save some time for us, okay? We have to talk.”

“Anything serious?”

“Not really, just, you know, catching up” she goes silent for a bit, “We miss you.”

Lydia hears her best friend sighing, and she knows he understands she’s not all warm and fuzzy, but she loves him.

“I miss you guys too. My schedule will be completely free for you.”

“It better be” she announces before saying her goodbyes, and hanging up.

She’s still staring at the phone, without really seeing it, when Jackson gets home, ten minutes later.

“I think it’s time we go back” she says simply, turning around to look at her fiancé, and he looks at her for a long moment, before nodding.

“I think so too.”

She’s not very sure about how that happened, but they are, well, she hates the word, but whatever, they are a _pack_. She and Stiles, and Danny and Jackson, they are family. They spent so long together they don’t know how to _be_ without the other, and losing Danny and then Stiles moving away – that was wrecking Jackson, because he felt the loss of his friends more than she did. Not that he loved them more, but because for him it was more than missing a friend, it was instinct to protect and defend his loved ones.

Losing Danny, his very best friend since they were in diapers, it had almost killed him. He hadn’t gone mad with the pain because he knew he had to keep it together for Stiles more than for himself. He tried to be there, and support him, and he had done an amazing job at it, even better the she did. He understood Stiles’ loss in a way she couldn’t, and she didn’t try to analyze it too much. Jackson simply got Stiles, even if, strictly speaking, they had always worked in a _Danny-is-my-best-friend-and-Stiles-is-yours_ between her and Jackson.

Now, she knew Jackson was craving the rest of his small pack with no Alpha. They didn’t have a power hierarchy, and nothing she and Stiles had found out about werewolves said much about a lone wolf, with a pack made up entirely of humans, where he wasn’t the Alpha, and yet, Jackson wasn’t it.

If anyone had power over the others it was her, maybe Stiles, when he got really focused on something, but there was no hierarchy established. And yet, with every full moon, Jackson’s wolf grew more and more uncomfortable with the fact that one of his pack was far.

They had talked about moving back for a while now – they had actually started as soon as Stiles decided to go back. They had tried to give him space, maybe their presence near him would be too constant a reminder of the loss of the love of his life, but that was clearly not the case. He missed them, and they missed him, and going back to Beacon Hills had always been their end game, anyway.

So maybe the fact that Stiles would have to be near Derek Hale again was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it wasn’t like they weren’t planning it anyway.

**X**

His dad calls him, telling him to come over for dinner, as a celebration of the beginning of the school year, and Stiles says he’ll be there.

He’ll be there and demanding answers.

“So…” he begins, once he, Vanessa and his dad are sitting in the dining room, eating veggie-lasagna, “I met with Derek Hale today.”

His dad looks at him worriedly, while Vanessa simply looks confused – his dad clearly hasn’t talked to her about their dark months, when all Stiles did was lie.

“Why?” the Sheriff ends up asking, still staring at him.

“Why didn’t you tell me he had a kid?”

The Sheriff looks like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Would you believe me if I said I completely forgot about it?”

“Well, she’s my student” Stiles says accusingly, and John closes his eyes, sighing.

“I completely forgot about the kid. He apparently had this affair with this girl a few years back. She got pregnant, we know she gave birth, and then we didn’t see her anymore. I guess Derek is taking care of the kid by himself” he looks at Stiles apologetically, “I know you don’t like talking about him, or any of the others, and they are still are tight as they were when you were in High School. I just never caught any wind of anything that might interfere with your life, and it slipped my mind.”

Stiles sighs, deflated.

“Well, it’s okay. He showed up at the meeting today, she starts school for the first time tomorrow. It was just a shock, that’s all.”

They go back to dinner and don’t talk about Derek or his kid anymore.

The next day, Stiles is as ready as he’ll ever be to start teaching his new kids. Parents come to his door, say their goodbyes to their kids and leave with large smiles. He has a special first day activity planned for them, nothing too tiring so that the kids can get used to school before diving in in learning, and he’s as excited as the kids are.

The couple who asked to talk to him privately is the first one to arrive – their kid has never been to a daycare, but they both work now, and none can stay to acclimatize their kid – that’s what was worrying them. Stiles has assured them he can handle it, it’d be easier if they were around, but he can deal with that.

Unsurprisingly, Derek is the very last one to bring his kid, and both of them look so reluctant to part it actually makes Stiles smile. He looks at the rest of his class, talking and playing with the toys available in the room, before going to the door to greet the newcomers.

“Hey, mister Hale. This must be Laura” he says, and can feel Derek stare at him with an eyebrow raised at the ‘mister Hale’ thing, but he swore to himself he’d be completely professional with this guy, even more than he usually is.

Laura is a beauty, that much is clear. Her skin is darker than Derek’s, and she has his amazing eyes, the green-gray kind of color that it’s impossible to determine. Her hair is long enough that it reaches the middle of her back, and it’s brushed simply, with no hair clips or anything, curling slightly at the tips – it’s also as black as Derek’s, and her beautiful eyes gaze at him mistrustfully.

“Come on, Laura, say hi to your teacher” Derek tries to coax her, but she only hides further in his neck.

“You know, there are a lot of kids here for you to play with, Laura. And your dad will be right here, outside this door if you want him” Stiles says persuasively. At that, Laura raises her head a little and looks at him.

“Why daddy can’t come inside?” she whispers, and her voice is soft and so very afraid Stiles just wants to hug her forever. He smiles at her.

“Because only the cool kids can come inside this room” he whispers to her, and she looks offended.

“Daddy is cool” she says fiercely and Stiles laughs again.

“Yes, but he isn’t a kid” he argues, and she looks at him, raising her head a little higher.

“You’re not a kid” she says back, and Stiles smiles broadly. Just as gruffy as her dad.

“No, but I’m the teacher, which is almost the same thing” he says to her, and she finally sighs, looking at her dad again.

“Right here?” she asks, and Derek nods solemnly, making Stiles realize, at the way Derek’s hands grip her a little tighter, that he’s just scared as she is about leaving her there.

“Right here” he answers and puts her down, kissing her cheek and making her giggle with his stubble.

Stiles has to wonder how can the man spend ten years without learning how to shave properly.

Laura stares at him, and he offers her his hand to get into the classroom, but she doesn’t take it, eyeing it distrustfully.

Okay, then.

The first day of pre-school is half a day, and there’s not much learning going on – mostly games and stories and songs, because the kids are so small, and also because most of them are too scared of being left alone, without their parents.

Stiles’ helper is a nineteen year old girl, who smiles a lot and is great at telling stories, with light blond hair and a friendly face, her name is Emily.

Laura stares at her for half a second before changing directions from where she was walking to, the corner with all the dolls in it, and goes straight to a corner with no kids. She picks up a small book and sits on a cushion, but she keeps staring at the dolls forlornly.

This goes on for about ten minutes, when Stiles keeps looking and monitoring a few of the kids playing around, but keeping an eye on Laura, when her eyes fill up with tears.

His heart breaks a bit, because she looks so miserable, so he goes to where a few girls and boys are playing and picks up a doll, carrying it to where Laura is.

“Hey” he says, smiling and crouching in front of her. She doesn’t answer him, “I thought this one looked a bit lonely there, do you think you could keep her company?”

She doesn’t say anything but takes the doll, her eyes trained on him rather than on the doll, as if he’s going to snatch it away any second.

Okay, this is just not right at all.

Once the doll is safe in her arms, Laura turns to look at it, smiling a little, and ignoring him.

Stiles lets his class play for another fifteen minutes before telling them to gather the toys on the carpet and take their seats with Emily’s help. There are nine children this year, and their desks are arranged in groups of three. Laura is on the desk closest to his, near a smiling brunet girl and a talkative blond boy, who are talking to each other about something. She sits quietly, and Stiles explains what he wants them to do, just a small coloring work, so he can gather what they can do – their motor skills development and sense of space, mostly.

The kids are not quiet, but they do their work. About five minutes in the activity, when Stiles is making rounds, and telling the children their work is beautiful, even if some are having a bit of trouble with holding the crayons still, he hears a sentence that he’s heard a thousand times before, but it always makes him sigh and think about how can small kids be so cruel.

“Your work is ugly.”

It’s the brunet girl, Kate, saying it to the blond boy beside her.

“Is not” he says in answer, and thus a shouting match begins.

While he and Emily try to calm the children down, he sees Laura’s eyes widen, and she closes them soon after, pressing her small hands to her ears.

When they finally stop shouting, and are apologizing to each other, Laura looks at Stiles, her green eyes full of tears.

“I want my daddy” she whispers, and at that precise moment, Derek knocks on the door and opens it, without waiting. Stiles looks at Emily, and she says she can handle the kids. Stiles looks at Laura, but she’s already running to her dad. He picks up her small backpack and leaves the classroom.

“Hey, Laura, you okay now, sweetie?” he asks carefully. She raises her head from her dad’s neck and nods at him, “Okay, are you sure you don’t want to stay a bit more? We are going to play a bit more later on” she shakes her head fast, and he smiles again, “Okay, then. See you tomorrow, alright?”

She stares at him a bit and manages a small smile.

“Thanks for the doll” she whispers, and Stiles reaches out, ruffling her hair a bit, making her giggle.

“Anytime” he answers and then sobers up, nodding at Derek and going back to his class.

He teaches his class and he goes home thinking about the children and the kind of trouble he’ll find this year. Kate criticizes everyone’s work, and Edward is way too quiet for a three year old boy. There are a lot of small things he’ll have to change in his lesson plans for it to work with this class, and he tries to focus on that, but truth is he spends most of his night thinking about Laura’s panicked face when the kids started arguing.

The rest of the week follows the same pattern, but Laura is staying a bit more with every passing day, and on Friday she made it through almost the whole class. She isn’t the only one having a bit of trouble, but she’s the only one who refuses to be calmed down by him or Emily even once – it’s as if she can feel Derek is right outside the door.

Maybe she can. Stiles never looked up anything about werewolf babies.

Friday comes way to fast, but he’s pretty satisfied with his progress – he and Derek haven’t exchanged more than the very basic necessary pleasantries at the beginning and end of each of Laura’s class and that’s it.

Maybe it _will_ work out okay.

Lydia and Jackson text him that they are coming that night and want to have dinner. He sets up a reservation at a nice place in town, goes home for a shower and a change of clothes, and gets to the place way before they do, waiting for a bit. Every single time the door opens he looks up – he hadn’t been thinking about it that much, he had been trying to avoid thinking about it, actually, but he missed them both so _much_ that now that he _knew_ they were near it was like a part of him was missing.

Finally, the door opens and Lydia smiles wide seeing him – he gets up and she walks a little faster, throwing herself into his waiting arms. She’s not the most outspoken about her feelings, but she really loves him, he knows that. He squeezes her until she squeaks and says she can’t breathe.

“Stop manhandling my fiancé, Stilinski” Jackson says, and Stiles lets Lydia go, just to be engulfed in a bear hug – wolf hug, maybe? – by Jackson, who picks him up the floor, before putting him back on his feet.

“Hey, not fair!” he exclaims, smiling still.

They sit and the waiter comes by to ask for their drink orders.

As he’s leaving, promising to bring back their drinks, Jackson tilts his head to the side, as if he’s listening to something they can’t, or maybe sniffing something. They’ve seen him doing this plenty of times before.

“What is it?” Stiles whispers, the door of the restaurant at their back opening and closing.

Jackson looks around and shrugs.

“Nothing, I guess” he answers, shrugging it off.

“We have to talk” says Lydia, and Stiles eyes them with trepidation.

Those are never good words coming from Lydia.

**X**

Derek can’t remember a time when he worried so much about something.

Sure, he had been in life and death situations before, but then it had been _his_ life on the line, and he could _do_ something about it. As time passed, he had learned to trust his pack, and he was happy he could do it – they had never left him down when he really needed them.

In a weird way, when Scott made sure Stiles hated them all, he had brought them closer. Losing someone is a sure way to make people see they can trust the ones they have left.

But Laura is in that classroom alone, with a bunch of kids she doesn’t know, and she sounds so miserable, and he can pick up her heartbeat, fast and scared, and he’s quite sure he will just get in, snatch his kid and home school her forever.

That first day passes in a blur of him focusing on her heartbeat and voice and a litany of ‘just five more minutes’ to control his impulse of going in.

When he hears her say she wants to go home, he can’t help it and opens the door, picking her up. He’s so relieved she’s fine, he almost misses the fact that she has _smiled_ at Stiles.

Okay then.

As the week goes by, he starts to relax a bit more. She’s still quiet in the classroom, but she talks plenty about it at home, and she really likes her teacher, calling him _Mister Styls_. The other kids call him the same thing.

She can’t stand the girl who helps him, though – Laura, Derek notices, doesn’t trust females. The only exception is Melissa, and the helper is as far as one can get from Mrs. McCall.

Friday night is the day when everyone comes over for dinner, and as no one actually likes to cook, he usually orders to go at some place in town.

Of _course_ that on that Friday he’d order at the place where Jackson, Lydia and Stiles are having dinner. He’s at the back, waiting, and is a bit worried that Stiles will see him there, but the man doesn’t seem to notice him, eyeing the door, making him wonder who’s he waiting for.

And then in they come, the rest of his pack, Lydia throwing herself at him, and he’s _smiling_ as if he’s coming home at last. Jackson picking him up and breathing him in – Derek can _sense_ the wolf in the other man calming down, realizing his pack is okay, they’re fine.

It makes something inside him twist – sure, his pack is close, but they are all… _them_. Him, with his great communication skills, and Scott with his uncertainty and heartbreak, and Boyd who is so quiet you can forget he’s there until you need him, and Isaac with his history of abuse who doesn’t really like to touch or be touched by anyone. The only one they actually open up for is Laura – but among them there’s not much physical contact going on, not while they are human. Running during the full moon, their wolves stick close to each other, but for the rest of the month they aren’t really… into contact.

But that right there, the way they sit so close to each other the waiter will have trouble putting their plates when their food come, the way Jackson is smiling, that Lydia is looking Stiles over, that’s something his pack doesn’t have, this closeness.

His food finally arrives, and he grabs the bags, heading for the door fast.

There’s no way in _hell_ Jackson didn’t get his scent, but he doesn’t stop and doesn’t look back.

Stiles is Laura’s teacher, but that’s it. By Monday Jackson and Lydia will have left, and everything will go back to normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And another one!  
> Wonder how Derek will react when he hears Jackson is coming back to town.  
> Hehehehehe  
> Let me know what you think!  
> REVIEW!


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm baaack!
> 
> So, expect a new chapter every few days and... I hope you haven't given up on the story.

**When it all falls apart**

**Chapter Four**

“Okaaaaaay, let’s talk” Stiles says, gathering his courage.

“You know our plan was always to come back here. We talked about it, and we had a sort of definite date, but with what happened things changed, and, well, we decided to put those plans to work a bit sooner. We’re coming back” Jackson says, and Stiles can only stare at them, waiting.

Are they serious?

“Are you…”

“Yes, Stiles, we are sure. And we are serious about this” Lydia interrupts, taking one of his hands in both of hers, “It’s not because we think you can’t handle being here on your own, but it’s not the same without you. We miss _you_. We miss… we miss _Danny_ ” she completes, smiling sadly and he takes in a shuddering breath at that, “And we can’t make him come back, but _we can_ have _you_ back, so we’ll do it. We’re coming back, and you better be happy about it.”

Stiles shakes his head at them, a small smile playing on his lips.

“I am happy about it. I can’t count the times I actually thought about calling you and asking you to come home, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, because, well, it wasn’t the plan, not yet. And with everything here…” he trails off, because maybe they have been unfair with the people they once called friends.

Or, at least, he did.

In a whole year they haven’t bothered him, or tried to look for him, so there’s no reason for him to fear that their lives are going to spiral out of control again just because they are living in the same town. Okay, Beacon Hills is small, but it’s not a village. They can co-exist.

Everything will be okay – especially if Lydia and Jackson are coming back.

“When are you planning on coming?”

“We have to settle a few things back in Portland first, and then arrange things here. You know dad has been nagging me to come work with him for years, and now that I actually feel I have the practice, I’m confident enough to actually do it” Jackson explains, taking a sip of his wine.

Stiles turns to Lydia and she smiles at him.

“You know as well as I do that I can do my research pretty much anywhere. My field is theoretical, I can set up a lab at our new place here. Of course, I’ll have to fly out often to present findings and articles, but I do that now, so” she shrugs delicately, and Stiles wants to cry he’s so happy.

He’s finally going to have his family back – his _own_ family, the one they put together because they wanted to.

He smiles at both of them, and they smile back, probably understanding the huge _thank you_ , that he knows he can’t say because they’d just brush it off.

Maybe Beacon Hills will feel like home again when they’re here.

**X**

Saturday is spent planning, because if there’s one thing Lydia actually enjoys is knowing how things are going to go.

She and Jackson are going to spend some time back in Beacon Hills as soon as the full moon goes by, to try and find a nice house for the both of them – as the full moon is during the next week, they decide to take that week in Portland to set everything to rights there before coming back.

It occurs to Stiles then, when they talk about the full moon plans, that they actually should tell Derek Hale and the others about their moving back.

“We didn’t tell them when _you_ moved back here” Jackson tells him, frowning a bit, and Stiles stares at him, shrugging a bit.

“Yeah, but I’m human. So is Lydia. I don’t know how Derek would take it to have you back here without even telling him.”

“We don’t need his permission” Jackson argues, getting a bit angry, and Stiles smiles at him calmly.

“We won’t be asking for permission, we’ll be telling him it’s a done deal. But, you know, common courtesy. Plus, I need to ask him to come to the school this week anyway, to talk to him about Laura.”

“Is something wrong with the kid? Because, honestly, I can’t seem to _grasp_ the concept of a child being raised by Derek Hale and being okay. It just doesn’t seem feasible” Lydia comments.

“Nothing’s wrong with her” Stiles starts, trailing off a bit, “Well, nothing, you know, outward? I don’t know. She _hates_ Emily with every fiber of her little being. If Emily tells her to do something, she just _won’t_ do it, not even try it, she doesn’t even refuses, just doesn’t answer at all. And she responds really badly to any kind of disagreement around her – at the first sign of anyone raising their voice, she gets away from them, and just… you know, gets defensive. It’s strange. But what I need to talk to her father is that, well, the first full moon of the school year is coming, and she _is_ his daughter, so… I need to know what to prepare for.”

“Good thinking” Lydia says, while Jackson is still frowning – Stiles knows him well enough to get that he’s bugged by the idea of telling Derek Hale anything.

For Stiles, Derek Hale was someone he could have grown accustomed to having in his life – they saved each other enough that they could have, maybe, become friends, or at least acquaintances, if Scott hadn’t, you know, burned all the bridges back then.

Derek, for one thing, had never left him hanging, had never hung up on him when he needed help, and maybe it was just self-preservation, maybe it was just that Derek wouldn’t want to leave him behind to assure that _he himself_ wouldn’t be left behind, but it was mostly okay.

He didn’t really have a grudge against Derek all in all – Derek hadn’t bitten Scott, Derek hadn’t tried to kill him, it was… okay.

For Lydia, Derek was just way too much of a loser for her to bother, but for Jackson, well, he was all kinds of a sore spot.

First, the guy had kind of infected him, _while he himself_ was poisoned with wolfsbane. Jackson, to this day, had nightmares about the visions he had back then, and they weren’t pretty. Then, he bites the kid and the Kanima happens – and while _that part_ wasn’t Derek’s fault, truth is that Derek’s plan for it was to kill Jackson – not to cure him, help him, talk to him. No. Kill him.

And then, when he finally was cured and was a proper wolf, Derek never really _tried_ to make Jackson his pack. He assumed first, and then he asked him _once_ , and never again.

For a kid who grew up with abandonment issues out the wazoo, that was pretty much being left behind.

Derek didn’t care about Jackson, or so Jackson had gathered, so, now, having to tell him anything was an offense that Jackson couldn’t just let go.

He will, though, because he knows it’s the right thing to do if they want to live peacefully, and they are mature enough not to let a grudge stop them from doing the right thing, but Stiles gets it.

He distracts Jackson by goading him into playing poker with him, while Lydia rolls her eyes and beats both of them in the game.

They’ll be fine.

**X**

Monday at school is a bit hectic – on Thursday he asked for Kate’s parents to stay behind a few minutes, and asked them to talk to Kate about her criticizing of her classmates, because the kids were starting to either fear her or reject her, and that kind of thing never ends well – the result is a Kate that decides to literally _adopt_ Laura.

She shadows the little girl all class long, and compliments everything she does, and stops the other kids from bothering her – all in all it’s cute, and Stiles hopes it’ll last, but Laura doesn’t really seem to know what to do with the sudden attention, so she hides behind Stiles a couple of times.

The absolute apex of the day is when Stiles is busy helping Kyle with an activity he seems to be having trouble with and Emily tries to help Laura – the little girl glares at her, and Kate, being the bodyguard she seems to think she is, kicks Emily in the shin, and has to be put in timeout.

Which leads to Laura rebelling for the first time in the classroom, screaming that it’s not fair that Kate is in time out and Emily isn’t, seeing as she hadn’t _asked_ for Emily’s help.

The argument is as shocking as the fact that she is actually talking loudly in front of all her classmates, something she seemed to be too shy to do before, but loyalty to a friend, apparently, runs deep in the little girl, and they have to sit and talk about why it is wrong to solve problems with violence.

It disrupts the whole lesson plan, and they spend half the afternoon on it.

It is worth it, though, because, from what Stiles can see, Laura has a great potential in her, she just needs to come out of her shell a bit more.

Now, if only he can manage to achieve that without having his assistant being beaten by three and four year olds, that’ll be great.

When the parents start arriving to pick their kids up, again Stiles has to ask for Kate’s parents to stay, and the couple looks at each other with a sort of lost look – Kate is clearly an only child, or, at the very least, the eldest. When Stiles asks that Derek stays too, the man looks surprised and defensive all at once.

He offers them seats and Laura, surprisingly, agrees to go play with Kate on the carpet while the grown-ups talk.

Derek looks lost when the little girl squirms to get out of his lap and runs away with Kate, as if she’s going to another universe and not to a carpet fifteen steps away.

“I asked you to stay behind because we had a small issue today in class, and I always like to keep the parents updated on this kind of thing. It’s better than let it be an issue later on, of which you know nothing about. As you know” he starts, looking at Kate’s parents, “I asked you to talk to Kate last week, and it worked really well. Laura is very shy, and she has some trouble interacting with the other kids, and Kate today decided to apparently become her best friend. During a small issue, Kate decided that, to protect Laura correctly, she had to kick our assistant in the shin. She was then put into timeout, which caused Laura to rebel, and we spent the rest of the afternoon talking about how violence is never the answer” he pauses and looks at the parents. The couple looks as if they should have known this would have happened, while Derek… well, he looks as if he wants to laugh. Or panic. Stiles is not sure, “Now, this is not uncommon, as kids usually just follow their impulses, I just asked you to stay so I could ask you to reinforce this idea at home too, as well as it’ll be in here – just try to always make sure they know that hitting someone is not okay, and that doing so will bring about consequences. This could turn into a habit, and we can’t let that happen.”

Parents nod, apologies are uttered, and the meeting is officially over when the couple gets up and calls for Kate.

“Mr. Hale, if you wouldn’t mind staying behind a little longer? There’s one more matter I’d like to talk to you about” he adds, when Derek looks ready to bolt.

The werewolf looks surprised but nods, and Stiles waits for the couple to leave before retaking his seat. Derek looks at Laura, but she is still playing with the doll she was before, and talking to it very animatedly, so he turns to Stiles and he takes a deep breath.

“I have a few things to discuss, actually, but I think that first we should address Laura’s progress today – she really stood up for Kate, screamed and everything, and while this is not proper classroom behavior, I’m glad she did it. She’s very shy, and taking a stance like she did today is a step to the right direction. I actually would like to know how she’s been responding to school at home, what does she say about it?”

“She loves it. Laura is not a talker, she keeps to herself, usually, but she does enjoy it. She likes learning” he responds, and appears to be thinking deeply about something before talking, “She really dislikes your assistant, though” he looks suspicious, as if Stiles is hiding something from him about Emily.

“Yes, we gathered that” he smiles as he says it, “It’s something I don’t really know where it comes from, because, honestly, Emily really tries with Laura, she just seems set on rejecting her. I assure you, Mr. Hale, Emily is completely qualified for her job.”

Derek is frowning when he stops talking, and Stiles waits – maybe the man will demand they get a new assistant or something.

“Why do you keep doing that?”

Stiles raises and eyebrow at him.

“Doing what?”

“Calling me Mr. Hale.”

“You are my student’s parent. It is the polite thing to do.”

“If we didn’t know each other before, sure, but come on, Stiles. You once almost saw my arm off. I think it’s weird.”

Stiles startles a bit at that, and looks at Laura, but she doesn’t seem to be paying attention to the conversation, and Derek did lower his voice.

If Laura is a werewolf, though, it won’t make a difference.

“Well, okay” he says after a few seconds, “The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is the full moon this week, _Derek._ ”

The man is already shaking his head.

“Laura isn’t… it. Her mother is from a family like mine, but she isn’t one either. I guess it carried through to our daughter.”

“Oh” he answers, taken aback. He hadn’t actually thought about what had happened to Laura’s mother, to tell the truth, and Derek did use the present tense, so the woman is alive.

Just not… around.

“She didn’t want kids” the man says suddenly, even quieter than before, “When she found out she was pregnant, she decided to keep it, for me. But she doesn’t want to be a mother, so she keeps her distance. I think she’s actually living in Argentina right now, we don’t really keep in touch.”

“I’m…” Stiles starts, but doesn’t really know where to go with it. Is he sorry? _Is there_ something to be sorry about? He doesn’t know.

“It’s okay” Derek says before he can go on, “Was that all?”

“No, actually. I have to tell you something. I mean, assuming you are… the Alpha of your pack, and Beacon Hills is your territory or something.”

“I’m not an actual wolf, Stiles. I don’t piss on trees or anything.”

Stiles glares at him for a second before shaking his head.

“Well, it’s just that Jackson and Lydia are moving back here. It was always our plan, but with my moving here, they just… decided to come sooner. And as Jackson is, well, you know, we thought it’d be the right thing to do to let you know.”

Derek’s eyes widen a bit but he nods soon enough, and clears his throat.

“As long as he doesn’t get into trouble, it’s okay.”

“He won’t.”

They stare at each other for a moment longer, and the man gets up, calling Laura.

“Thank you” Stiles says at the door, Laura on Derek’s hip.

“No problem” Derek stands still for a moment longer, clearly struggling with something, “You can call me if you need anything, you know, because of Jackson” Derek offers, and he himself looks as if he doesn’t know why he said that.

“Bye, Mr. Styls” Laura says brightly, waving at him.

“Bye, sweetheart, see you tomorrow” he tells her, waving back.

He can hear her babbling excitedly at Derek for a while before closing up his classroom and leaving.

That was officially weird, right?

**X**

By Thursday, Stiles has established that, even though he hates it when people say things like this, Kate is actually a bad influence on Laura – except that the whole thing is having a somewhat positive outcome.

The girls follow the pattern Kate set on Monday, and now refuse to sit apart during class, or even being separated during playtime or any of the workshops. The positive points of it are that Laura seems to be speaking up more, even sticking up for Kate when the girl needs it, and seems to be getting less and less shy with every passing day.

The negative outcome of it is that, seeing as Laura still hates Emily, now Kate does too, and she isn’t shy about it at all.

The whole thing is actually funny, although he tries not to laugh about it where the kids can see it because he shouldn’t be encouraging it – but the whole thing is so cute he can’t help it.

Laura is all sorts of adorable.

Laura is also a lot like him when he was that age.

Up until the day he met Scott, Stiles was a bit of an outsider, and he had to be alone a lot. Having a best friend helped ground him when he was a pre-teen, and helped him be confident enough during his teen years – at least until he was sixteen, that is – that he could be himself, but before that, he was actually extremely afraid that people wouldn’t like him at all, so he would try his very best to keep to himself.

His mom thought it best to keep him home for as long as she could, so when he started kindergarten at 5, a lot of the kids were already fast friends, and he was a bit left out.

He could see it that Laura liked the attention – she liked to play and run, but before Kate, she wasn’t sure she was allowed, and she didn’t seem to trust adults all that much.

Or maybe it was just people in general.

God knows she wouldn’t have learned how to trust from her dad, and not having a mom couldn’t be easy for either of them. As far as he knew, the Beacon Hills pack hadn’t changed, so unless Melissa or Erica had taken on the female role in her life, she had Derek to follow, and nothing more – except he hadn’t seen Erica once in a whole year, and Melissa had been too busy to properly care for Scott, her own son, Stiles couldn’t really see her leaving her job to take care of Derek’s kid.

So, on Thursday night, when he’s grocery shopping for tomorrow’s dinner at his dad’s (which Jackson and Lydia will be attending), he has resigned himself to the fact that Laura and Kate will be trouble all year long, but he’d rather have trouble than sullen, unmotivated kids.

He’s by the vegetable stand, looking for some tomatoes when he hears a loud greeting and turns around to see Laura waving madly at him, and running in his direction.

“Mr. Styls!” she screams, jumping at him, and he laughs, picking her up.

“Hey, Laura. What are you doing here alone? Where’s your dad?”

“He’s home. I saw you and then I ran and she didn’t see me” she tells him with a mischievous smile that spells trouble for Derek when she’s older.

“Laura! I told you not to run, sweetie, if I lose you here, your dad will eat me!”

Stiles turns around and Melissa stops in her tracks for a second, walking again when he smiles hesitantly at her.

“Stiles” she greets awkwardly, and he tries to set Laura on the floor, but the little girl squeezes his neck a bit more and he laughs quietly.

“Mrs. McCall. How are you?”

“Oh, I’m fine now that I see Laura hasn’t actually run off. I think Derek would kill me!”

“That’s a possibility” he answers, still feeling awkward.

This woman, for a while, had been a _huge_ part of his life, and now he doesn’t know what to say.

“So, you’re shopping with Mrs. McCall, huh?” he asks Laura instead, focusing on her, because _she_ he can deal with.

“Yes. With her and uncle Scott” the little girls tells him, nodding, and keeps on talking, but he sees Scott watching them now, at the end of the aisle, and he takes in a deep breath.

So, apparently, it’s awkward night at the Supermarket.

Noticing he’s been seen, Scott walks towards them, almost shuffling his feet and looking like the teen he once was best friends with.

“Hey” the werewolf greets, half waving.

“Hi. So, I think this is yours” he comments, nodding to Laura, and the girl giggles and sets her little hands more firmly around his neck.

“Yeah. We just came to get some stuff for dinner, and she wanted to get out of the house.”

“Too many people, Mr. Styls. And they don’t know quiet time like you do. I even tried the Itsy Bitsy Spider song, but they just keep on talking!” she tells him frowning, and Stiles laughs at her.

“That’s because adults aren’t as cool as we are” he tells her, his voice solemn, and she nods at him seriously.

“The Spider song?” Melissa asks, and Stiles tries to shrug.

“We sing it when we want quiet. By the end of the song everyone whispers, so we know we have to be quiet.”

“That explains a lot” Scott says, and Stiles smiles, imagining the number of times Laura has started singing, without explaining why, just expecting them to be quiet like her classmates.

“Yeah. Well, I should get going” he hugs Laura again, kissing her forehead, and passing her to Melissa. The kid kisses him on the cheek with a smile before going, “It was nice seeing you, Laura” he waves and goes to the register, knowing he doesn’t have all he’ll need for tomorrow, but not wanting to be in the same place as Scott anymore.

It’s honestly a bit pathetic how much it still hurts being near him.

**X**

“You’re quiet” Melissa comments once they are in the car, Laura safe and happy in the backseat, drinking from a juice box – grape, because, apparently, that’s what _Mr. Styls_ – and Kate – love.

“It’s just… If I started counting now, we’ve spent more time not being friends than actually being friends, so how can this still bother me this much? I want to… I don’t know. This feels so wrong.”

“Time doesn’t always work like it’s supposed to. You never stopped seeing Stiles as your friend, sweetie. He’s always been your best friend, even when he wasn’t anymore, and I think that’s why seeing him here hurts this much. When he was away, then he was _away_. Now he’s here, and you have to face the fact that you’re not close as you once were.”

Scott doesn’t answer that, mostly because his mom is right, but also because he doesn’t want to sound like a two year old – but he wants his best friend _back_.

He was sixteen, for Christ’s sake. Who doesn’t make stupid decisions when they are sixteen and in the middle of a mess much bigger than they can handle? Who hasn’t tried to protect someone only to just hurt them?

Of course most people aren’t actually in a life and death situation, but he was trying to do his very best.

He misses him.

Even with Boyd being cool, and Isaac being a great guy, they aren’t Stiles. They aren’t his brother they don’t get him like Stiles used to – they never did.

He misses him.

He looks at Laura through the rearview mirror and starts thinking.

Maybe – _maybe_ – he could have his friend back.

It’s certainly worth a shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, let me know what you think!
> 
> Also, you can find me on [Tumblr](http://darkjan.tumblr.com/)  
> 


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heey!
> 
> Just to let you know that you should expect some oneshots coming before the next chapter for this one is up - the amount of stuff I have that has, like, one scene missing to be finished is getting ridiculous.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like it!

**When it all falls apart**

**Chapter Five**

Derek takes a moment to just… breathe when Scott and Melissa take Laura with them to the supermarket.

Boyd and Isaac will be getting to his place soon, and he needs a moment to himself.

He hasn’t really had many of those ever since Laura came along, and he doesn’t complain about it, not ever. When Nicole left, Laura wasn’t even a full month old, and he spent many a night awake with her – feeding her, changing her, making sure she wasn’t hungry or cold or thirsty.

Sometimes he actually just stood beside her crib, watching her breathe, because she was so small and so fragile.

Every time he even started to think about how tired he was or how much he wanted to just have one night, just _one_ full night’s sleep, he’d remember how long he wished he could have a family again, someone of his blood he could love and trust and take care of, and felt immediately guilty for thinking he was tired.

Laura was everything to him, he’d live for her alone if she so needed it, and he didn’t mind that one bit, but going to school had… changed her.

He knew things would change the older she grew, but now it’s just so strange, picking her up at school, hearing her chatting all the way home about her classmates, how Kyle cried, and how Emily has stupid hair, or how Mr. Styls apparently hung the moon and the stars – literally, on the ceiling of their classroom – and how Kate was so nice and great her bestest friend.

She would talk about the library at school, and the things she learned in class and so many people Derek didn’t know – little people, sure, but a whole world that was hers and hers alone. He didn’t know her classmates as she did, he would never, actually, because they were _hers_ , and that had never happened before.

Laura was… a person. An independent, smart, sly little person. And while he knew that before, they were so used to their own little world at the edge of the preserve that it didn’t make a difference, but now… Laura was becoming her own little person, all by herself, and it was driving Derek _insane_ with worry.

He needs to talk to someone about it, he knows, but his options are rather limited right now – who’s he going to talk to? Scott, whose father abandoned him, and whose mother worked so hard to get food on the table there had been days she hadn’t even seen him at all when he was growing up? Boyd, with the family who blamed him for not taking care of his little sister when he himself was a kid still? Melissa, who, for all her great assets, still worked for too long and too hard? _Isaac_?

So he sighs, and starts getting things ready for dinner, which they are cooking for once, because Laura asked for mac and cheese, and that they can actually manage, and greets Boyd, who shows up a few minutes before Isaac.

It’s not that dire a situation, anyway.

He’ll live if he doesn’t talk to anyone. They’ll be okay – he just needs to adjust a bit.

By the time everyone is back, Laura contently watching The Little Mermaid in the living room as they cook and set the table, Derek manages to look fine as ever.

They sit to eat, Laura says she wants to eat in front of the TV, and while Derek usually doesn’t allow that, today he does. He has reasons too.

“So… Stiles asked to talk to me on Monday, after school” he announces, and Scott drops his fork on his plate, startled.

“We… huh… ran into him now, at the store.”

“Did he say anything to you?” he asks, because Scott looks shifty, like he did for months when Allison left them.

“No. Just… talked to Laura. She seems to like him a lot” Melissa answers, and Derek shakes his head.

“I keep expecting her to tell me she wants to live with him instead of me, but that’s not what… He asked to talk to me because, well, Jackson and Lydia are moving back” he waits a few seconds, seeing as the piece of news settles with the rest of his pack, “Apparently, this was always their plan, to come back to Beacon Hills, but with Danny’s death, and Stiles moving here last year, they decided to come back too. He wanted me to know, so we wouldn’t be taken by surprise.”

“If Jackson hasn’t caused any trouble all this time in Portland, I doubt he will now. It’s nice of them to let you know, though” Isaac comments, looking around the table.

Boyd doesn’t say anything, but, really, it’s not as if this affects him a whole lot, seeing as none of the three of them were really his friends – by the time he was fully integrated with the pack, they weren’t really a part of it anymore.

Scott is looking down, and Derek knows there’s something bothering him – he also knows he won’t talk about it until he’s ready, and maybe not even then. Isaac seems accepting of it, calmly and steadily, as he takes in most things in life; and Melissa just looks worried about Scott.

To be honest, Derek is a bit too, but there really isn’t much he can do for him – Scott made his choice a long time ago, and he has to live with it, or work to change the consequences of what he’s done.

There’s very little talk as they get things tidy up, and soon the pack is leaving, and Derek is putting Laura in the shower and then in bed.

He thinks he has things under control, except, well, except everything kind of goes to hell on Friday.

Kate Tinsdale is Laura’s best friend, and her parents kind of trap him on Friday, on his way to his car with Laura on his arm, and ask for a sleepover.

At their place.

The very next night.

His eyes widen a bit, and he tells them Laura never slept out of the house before, but they keep saying how it’ll be great for the girls, and how much they’ll love it, and they give him their address and phone number and Laura looks as if she might either cry or try to eat him of he says no, and he doesn’t want to be one of those crazy parents who never let their kids do anything fun because they are too afraid – he can’t be afraid of letting his daughter have a sleepover with her best friend, especially because Kate is her _first friend_.

So he says he’ll think about it, and then he calls Melissa, and she tells him it’s a good thing, and mentions that Scott used to sleepover at Stiles all the time.

So he says yes.

On Saturday, at six, the Tinsdale family opens the door for him and Laura and her bright yellow backpack, and she doesn’t even say goodbye because Kate is squealing in happiness and dragging Laura in to show her her Monster High collection.

Her parents take pity on him, tell him he should enjoy his night off, and he leaves, feeling… weird.

Sad, maybe? Alone? Lonely?

He doesn’t even know.

When nine o’clock comes by, he’s driving himself insane in the house, and he _needs_ some sort of reassurance that this is going to be okay, that Laura is okay, and he _needs_ someone who actually knows Laura to do it.

So he grabs his keys and, trying very hard not to think on it, because if he does he’ll give up, he leaves.

**X**

Stiles is home Saturday night because that’s… what he does now.

The night before, he had dinner with Lydia, Jackson, his dad and Vanessa, and things were calm and okay, but when they left, he just _knew_ there was something missing.

That – the dinners – it was something they used to do every single time he was in town with Danny and the others. They’d gather in one of their parents’ houses, and cook and have fun, but now it was like something was missing.

Something was going on with his dad and Vanessa too, and he didn’t want to pry, but it was worrying him a lot.

Lydia and Jackson had arrived on Thursday, looking for houses and such, and left Saturday morning, because they had things to do back in Portland.

So Stiles is home, in pajama bottoms and an old Hulk T-shirt, because they are on an Farm Animal’s unit in class, and they are going to make Farm Animals this week, but they’ll need a farm to put the animals in, so he’s now painting a quite big piece of Styrofoam, which is covered in fake grass, and is now getting a fake, painted on little lake, and then which he’ll add some small fences and the farm house.

The whole apartment will smell like glue and paint by the end of the night, but he doesn’t really mind.

When his doorbell rings at nine-thirty, though, he’s officially worried, because not many people come to his place – his dad and Lydia or Jackson when they are in town, but that’s it.

He opens the door and actually takes a step back when he sees Derek standing there, looking _desperate_ – and, man, does that take him back to his teens or what.

“Derek?” he asks, not really knowing what to do, and the man wriggles his hands twice before taking in a deep breath.

“I really didn’t want to bother you, but Laura is in a sleepover at Kate’s place and I’m freaking out” he says in a rush and Stiles has to contain the urge to laugh.

“O-kay” he says slowly, “Come in?” he asks more than invites, but Derek does come in, taking deep breaths all the way, “Do you want something to drink? Water, coffee… chamomile tea?”

“I… I really don’t want to bother you, I swear this wasn’t my plan at all, but I just need to hear that it’ll be okay. She’s never slept out before, and she didn’t even say goodbye to me when I dropped her off and… fuck, did the kid’s name have to be _Kate_?” he ends up saying, looking like he’s surprising himself with that last one, and Stiles takes a deep breath himself, because up until now, it hadn’t occurred to him that _Kate_ would be a pretty unpopular name among the Hales.

“Okay, you need to calm down” he says, walking to the kitchen, “Take a seat, I’m making you some tea.”

Derek sits down, looking awkward and uncomfortable.

“I really didn’t mean to spoil your night, it’s just… no one seems to know her quite well right now, and I know it’s probably just me being crazy, but…”

“But she’s your baby. Your only kid, and the most important person in your world, and you just saw her leave you for the first time without a care in the world, as if you didn’t matter” he completes, and Derek doesn’t respond, just keeps breathing in and out. Stiles smiles softly at it, “It’s okay to freak out. I bet Kate’s parents orchestrated the whole sleepover thing at their place because they would be freaking out too.”

“I should’ve thought of that” Derek says softly, as if he’s angry at himself, and Stiles laughs at that.

“No need to worry about it now, I’m sure you’ll have a lot of sleepovers in your future, it’s what kids _do_.”

“So, you think it’ll be okay?”

“I know it’ll be okay, because you have an amazing kid, and Kate is smitten with her. I think she didn’t have many friends before school either. She and Laura really get along, and her parents are good people. They’ll be fine, Derek” he reassures the man, putting a mug of tea in front of him.

The Alpha takes the mug in his hands and takes a sip, even though it’s burning hot.

Stiles sits down across from him, and waits.

It’s not as if a parents hasn’t looked for him in a bit of desperation before, just not… like this.

With the parent being, you know, an Alpha werewolf from a pack he abandoned years ago.

“The name thing freaks me out” Derek tells him a few minutes later, looking down, “I didn’t even bring it up with anyone else, because it wouldn’t do any good, I don’t think Boyd and Isaac even know about the whole thing. But it freaks me out hearing her say that she loves Kate. It’s…” he doesn’t finish the sentence, and shakes his head.

Stiles winces in sympathy, and tries to find something to say to that, but he doesn’t think he can.

When your daughter is best friends with someone who has the same name as the person who burned your whole family down, what do you even say to that person?

“Sometimes, when she gets home from school, it’s like she’s a whole different person, you know?” Derek continues, looking up at Stiles with a small smile, “The day you hung the moon on the ceiling, I thought she was going to ask to let you adopt her.”

“Well, I did hang the moon” Stiles tells him with a smile, “She talks about you all the time, though. To Kate and Kyle, who seems to be slowly attaching himself to Laura. She’s an amazing kid, Derek, and she loves you like nothing else. She’s your world, and you are hers, there’s nothing to fear from it.”

“It’s just… I’m just… me. The one parent she has, with some weird uncles and aunts, but just us. I keep thinking that someday, someone is going to point out how weird we all are, and she’s going to get hurt.”

“I think this is not what you _want_ to hear, but, Derek, kids get hurt all the time. Physically and emotionally, they get hurt, but they heal, and they get better for it, if they have a loving family behind them, and Laura does, doesn’t she?” Derek nods at that, “So you have nothing to be afraid of. She’ll be okay. You’ll be okay too.”

Derek drinks the rest of his tea and sighs.

“Thank you. I mean, I know you don’t like to keep in touch with any of us, but…”

“You’re not the first parent to freak out and come looking for me, nor will you be the last. And… it’s not like I’ve been avoiding you or anything” he answers defensively.

“Stiles, you’ve been living in Beacon Hills for over a year, and I see you at school. That’s all.”

“That’s because I really don’t get out all that much. I don’t… feel like it.”

She shrugs when he says that, and Derek swallows hard, understanding what he means.

“Plus, it’s not like I see you all around either. I haven’t seen Allison or her dad or Erica or Boyd. I see Isaac sometimes, and I ran into Scott and Melissa at the store this week.”

“Boyd works a lot” Derek starts, hesitantly, as if he’s not sure it’s okay to talk about his pack with Stiles, “Erica is married to an Alpha. She hasn’t lived here for a few years now, but she keeps in touch. She’s very happy.”

“She deserves it” he comments, because it’s true. After all the crap she suffered in High School, even before turning into a werewolf, she deserves to have a nice life.

“Allison left before Laura was even born” Stiles can swear his heart stops beating for a second when he hears that, “When things settled down here, her dad started to travel again, looking for hunts, and after a few years of that, he decided to just leave, knowing Beacon Hills was safe again. She went with him. We haven’t heard from her since.”

“God” he whispers, almost involuntarily, because while he _knew_ Allison would end up being trouble for that pack, he didn’t expect her to _leave Scott_.

“We were expecting it, really. It still shook Scott up pretty badly.”

Stiles looks down at that, because he doesn’t really know what to say.

“I should go” Derek says, getting up, “I’m sorry for freaking out on you.”

“It’s okay, Derek. I’m here if you need anything.”

Derek stares at him for a moment when he says that, before smiling.

“Thank you.”

He leaves, and Stiles closes the door, thinking how weird that just was.

He refuses to think on how comfortable he feels around Derek, though.

No, sir, that’s a path he’s not going down on, because that way lays madness.

**X**

It’s just a little over eight when Derek goes to pick Laura up from the Tinsdales and, while she looks like she had a blast the night before, the way she hugs him tightly and refuses to be put down even to say goodbye eases something within him.

Yeah, she’ll have her own little things, but she’ll always be his, right?

Right.

**X**

Stiles is a bit disoriented when he wakes up at nine on Sunday because both his doorbell and his cellphone are ringing.

Sure, he always tries to show up for Sunday lunch at a reasonable hour, but he works very hard all week, the _least_ people could do is let him sleep in the one day he tries to do it.

His cell shows it’s his dad calling, so he answers that first, getting to his feet unsteadily – he’s never been good with mornings.

“Dad?”

“Stiles, open the door.”

Confused, he hangs up and goes to the door, opening and staring at his dad, who’s fully dressed and has his hands full of bags of food.

“What the hell?” he mutters, inviting his dad in with a gesture.

“Sorry for waking you up on a Sunday, it’s just that, well, we need to talk.”

“Okay… but couldn’t it wait? I’m heading over to your place in, like, two hours.”

His dad sighs, puts the bags on the kitchen table and starts to take breakfast out of them, pushing a Styrofoam cup of coffee in Stiles’s hands, as he too takes a seat.

“It has something to do with that too, so…”

His dad is quiet, and Stiles is getting worried.

“Did something happen? Is Vanessa okay?”

“That” his dad starts with a rueful smile, “is up to debate, and kind of the point of us having this whole conversation. I think… I think me and Vanessa are getting divorced.”

To say Stiles is taken aback is kind of the understatement of the _century_ , because he almost chokes on his coffee he’s so shocked.

“What? How?! I didn’t even know you guys were having problems!”

John shrugs, picking up a muffin and setting it in front of Stiles before taking one for himself.

“Apparently _that_ is the problem.”

“What is?”

John shrugs again.

“The us not having… trouble. Emotion. Excitement. I pay too much attention to work and too little at home. And when I’m home, now I’m always looking for a way to bring, well, _you_ in. She thinks we don’t act like a real couple anymore, and that I’m not good at the talking part of the relationship, and… she asked me to spend the day out today, so she could pack her things for a few days out, to clear her head.”

“I’m… I don’t even know what to say.”

“I don’t think there’s anything to say. Most of what she said was true, and I’m not… I’m okay with her leaving. It’s not that I don’t think Vanessa is amazing, because she is, but it’s not the end of the world.”

“But this is so sudden.”

Stiles has to take just one look at his dad’s face to know that no, it isn’t sudden at all.

“How long has this thing been going on?”

“A few months. She wasn’t really happy with things even before… you know. But then you moved back, and really I was focusing on making you feel at home and comforted, and it took kind of a second place, and I never really thought about bringing it back, until a few weeks ago when we talked, and now… I think she’s leaving.”

Stiles just stares at his dad for a long moment, taking it all in.

He seems really calm for a guy who is divorcing his wife.

To tell the truth, Stiles doesn’t really know Vanessa all that well anyway – when his dad met her he was in college, and wrapped up in his new life with his new friends. Sure, he came to their wedding and they talked some when he was home, but he didn’t really stay home for the whole summer, not even once, while at college, and after that, he had officially moved in with Danny, and they had their own place.

She seemed nice enough, if a bit self-centered sometimes, but his dad seemed happy – apparently not so much, though.

“Are you really okay?” he asks, frowning, and the Sheriff smiles at him, raising a hand and messing with Stiles’s hair like he used to when he was a kid.

“I’ll be just fine.”

Stiles nods at him, and they spend the day quietly, watching some TV and eating junk food, for which Stiles doesn’t even reprimand his dad, for once.

It’s almost eight when John gets a text from Vanessa telling him she’s already on her way to her sister’s house, a few towns over, and he says goodbye to his dad, telling him to call if he needs anything.

They hug tightly, and then the Sheriff goes away, leaving Stiles to pick up their mess.

He barely has time to put away the pizza box and paper napkins when his doorbell rings _again_ , and he stares at the door incredulously.

What is it with this weekend?!

He opens the door and takes an involuntary step back when he sees who’s there.

“Can we talk?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, let me know what you think!
> 
> Also, you can find me on [Tumblr](http://darkjan.tumblr.com/)


	6. Chapter Six

**When it all falls apart**

**Chapter Six**

Stiles frowns deeply and feels the urge to close the door, but he doesn’t, because he has manners.

Some, anyway.

“I really don’t want to be rude, Mrs. McCall, but what the hell could we possibly have to talk about?”

Melissa sighs, and Stiles can see the ten years since he actually used to have this woman as a part of his life make a difference in her.

She has some white hair now. A few more wrinkles around her eyes, a tired look about her that she didn’t use to have before.

He sighs deeply and takes a step back.

“Come in.”

She does, looking around his house, and he’s very aware of having been at home for the past sixty hours without leaving.

“Can I… Look, what’s going on?” he starts politely and changes tactics, because he’s a bit lost here.

Derek asking for his help with his kid he gets, because he’s Laura’s _teacher_. Parents freak out a lot when their kids are staring school, it’s happened to him before. But then there was his dad and Vanessa, and now Melissa, and just… come on.

“Derek told us your friends are coming back to Beacon Hills too” she starts, and Stiles nods at her, “I take it that means you’ll be staying here, then.”

“I’m sorry, but what does that have to do with you? I’m back, Lydia and Jackson are coming back, and that’s all there is to it. I told Derek about it because it was polite, and we don’t want any trouble, but seriously, it wasn’t an invitation for any of you to think you have anything to do with it because you don’t.”

“Actually, we do” she answers, anger creeping into her voice, and Stiles snorts.

“Really, how so?” he asks back, crossing his arms over his chest.

The woman takes a deep breath, looking like she’s praying for patience.

“My son lost… I’m not going to say everything, because he still has me, and he’s alive and breathing, and he loves his job, but he lost _a lot_ , Stiles. Too much. When he lost you---“

“He didn’t lose me, Melissa. He kicked me out of his life.”

“He was sixteen, Stiles. He was a kid.”

“Oh, yes, because I was a responsible adult by then.”

“I’m not saying it excuses what he did, I’m just trying to make you see that losing you, and then losing Allison – a part of Scott was never whole again, and all I’m asking is for you to try and relate a bit, because I’m sure he still wants to try and have you in his life. I’m just trying to make you understand where he’s coming from, what he lost.”

Stiles laughs bitterly by then, and is still smiling at her when he starts talking again.

“You really want to talk to me about losing people; really? I lost my mom, all alone, when I was eight. I was losing my dad too, because of all the lies, by the way, when I was a teen. I lost all of my friends, because _your son_ told me I was unnecessary and useless. I lost my best friend too, okay? I lost my… I lost Danny last year and… I know about losing. But Scott didn’t _lose_ me, he threw me out. He made me see I was nothing to him. I get it that he’s your son, and that you want what’s best for him, but if there’s one thing I learned from _my friends_ , you know, the ones who actually stuck it out with me through all of the bad things that happened after Scott _ditched_ me because of Isaac and Allison, is that sometimes you have to look out for yourself. So don’t come here asking me to understand what losing means. I knew what losing someone meant before Scott did.”

Melissa stares at him for a long moment then, looking tired and worn out and a bit desperate.

“I’m just asking you to give him a chance if he looks for you. Let him… show you his side of the story before you shut him out completely.”

“As far as I’m concerned, Melissa, Scott is just a guy I used to hang out with and who left me behind when he found a girlfriend. There’s no story to it.”

The woman shakes her head and seems to give up.

“Okay” she says quietly, going to the door. Stiles goes too and opens it for her, waiting for her to leave.

She gets out and turns around, smiling softly for the first time that night.

“You grew up well, Stiles. Your dad must be proud of you” she tells him softly, and Stiles feels extremely awkward suddenly, because of the shift in the mood.

“Ahm, thanks.”

“Take care, kid.”

And then she disappears down the hall.

Stiles closes and locks the door behind him and decides to go to sleep ASAP.

He has no more energy to deal with this weekend.

**X**

“Derek, I need to talk to you.”

Derek stops putting dishes in the dishwasher and turns around, staring at Scott, who looks nervous and anxious – that is _never_ a good combination for Scott.

“What’s up?”

He seems to be gathering courage before he speaks, and Derek lets him – it’s not as if he has any pressing issues to solve, with it being Sunday night, and Laura already fast asleep.

“Can I pick Laura up this week? From school?”

Derek gets what this conversation is about now, and he really, _really_ doesn’t want to have it right now. Maybe not ever.

Stiles is a good guy, he helped him with his freak out the day before, and he is Laura’s teacher, whom she adores. He really doesn’t want to jeopardy whatever cordial relationship they have now because Scott can’t just let things go.

It’s just like it was with Allison, he never let it go until she _made_ him.

Except Derek doesn’t believe that Scott will get over Stiles definitely cutting him off.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at work by the time Laura gets out?” he asks instead of giving any indication that he knows where this is going.

“I’m a partner at the clinic, I can take half an hour off to pick her up and bring her home.”

“Scott” he begins, washing his hands and drying them in a dishtowel before running a hand over his hair while leaning against the kitchen counter, “this is a bad idea. A really bad idea.”

“It’s not like I’ll forget to pick her up, Derek, geez.”

“You know as well as I do that this has absolutely _nothing_ to do with picking Laura up, and everything to do with trying to sneak into Stiles’s life again. You can’t do subtle, Scott.”

“I just need a way in. I just have to talk to him again, tell him that… you know!” he finishes a bit desperately, and looking way younger than he is right now.

There have been very few moments in his life that Derek had to actually step in as an Alpha, like his mother used to. He remembers her counseling his sisters, giving advice to pack members, taking a personal interest in their personal lives, and they all seemed grateful, but that’s not quite the way it works when your pack is made up mostly of angry teenagers, and you yourself have _no idea_ of what you’re doing. Mostly they knew he was their Alpha, and they deferred to him as such in pack business, but he kept his nose out of their personal lives, and that’s it.

Now, though, it’s a moment he knows he _has_ to step in. He can’t just sit back and watch Scott crash and burn.

“Let’s… sit down, okay?” he starts, taking a seat at the kitchen table. Scott looks hesitant but goes along and sits across from him, looking at Derek expectantly, “What do you think will happen if you do pick Laura up this week?”

“I could ask Stiles to talk to me.”

“At his work? When he has eight other kids around, with their parents waiting for them and asking questions? Because it’s not like we just go there and pick them up, the kids aren’t fried chicken. We go, sometimes he asks us to stay behind, the kids talk. You won’t _have_ the opportunity to ask to talk to him if he doesn’t want to talk to you, and right now he doesn’t.”

“I can’t just not do anything! I have to do something!”

He looks so miserable and sounds so desperate that Derek actually wants him to go and fix things with Stiles, but he has _no idea_ how that could even begin to work.

“Why do you want this so badly, anyway? It’s been _years_ , Scott. You have been in and out of college, you have a job you love, and your whole life ahead of you, and you’re still hung up on the one friend you lost. Why?”

“Because it didn’t have to be this way!” the younger man shouts, getting up and pacing the kitchen, “It didn’t have to be like this, Derek. Why do you think I made _Stiles_ stay away from us, and not Isaac or even Allison?” Derek only shrugs in response to that, “Because he was the one I couldn’t stand losing! Stiles is my brother, Derek. He’s… he’s _my_ pack. I loved Allison, god, I did, but I knew, after what happened to her mom, that things would never be really right between us again. And I care about Isaac a lot, but he’s not my friend the way Stiles used to be. He always had my back. He was always there. And now I can’t be there for him! I thought we would fix things after things calmed down enough, I thought I would have the chance to patch things up, but I never did, and I _have_ to. I can’t lose him forever too. I love you guys, you know I do, but I want to fix this. Stiles is hurting, I know he is, because of Danny, and I want to help him. I want to be in his life, I want to take away a bit of the pain I put him through. I just… need to try.”

Derek rubs his eyes, knowing right now that he’s going to regret this.

“Look, give it a few days, okay? I’ll… talk to him.”

Scott looks unimpressed.

“ _You’ll_ talk him?” at his nod, Scott actually snorts, “Man, he hated you.”

“No, he didn’t.”

“Yes, he did. He accused you of murder _twice_.”

“Yes, and then he saved my life so many times that I think we’re even. And, besides, every time we talked since he came back he’s been nothing but polite to me. Right now, I have a much better chance at talking to him than you do.”

Scott still looks like he doesn’t think this is going to work – to be completely honest, Derek doesn’t either, but it’s better than Scott trying to use Laura to get closer to Stiles.

“Look, if I try to talk to him, and it doesn’t work, I’ll let you pick Laura up for a month if you want to. Just let me try first.”

Scott sighs loudly, and nods, finally, getting up to leave.

“Thanks” he says, when he’s at the door, “I mean, I know you don’t need this crap, and that he’s Laura’s teacher. Thanks.”

“No problem” he tells him with a nod.

So now he has to figure out a way to make Stiles agree to talk to Scott.

He feels as if it’s 2012 all over again.

**X**

Stiles doesn’t see Derek picking up Laura on Monday because Kyle’s parents ask to talk to him about their son, who’s apparently showing a whole new side they knew nothing about – so Stiles a good fifteen minutes after class calming said parents down and assuring them that it’s normal for a kid Kyle’s age to start disagreeing with them.

Kyle, of course, is now friends with Laura and Kate, and Stiles has the feeling the girls have a lot to do with that, but he doesn’t want to think about it too much, because he’ll end up having way too much fun with the prospect of Derek’s kid being a future trouble maker.

He goes home to take a shower and then gets to his dad’s place, knowing he had the night shift to cover for one of his deputies, and so will be home.

It’s weird that, when he gets there, the house is exactly the same – it’s like there’s nothing missing and, well, Vanessa lived there for _years_. How come her leaving doesn’t make a difference in the whole house?

He’s staring around when the Sheriff comes from the kitchen, stops by his side and sighs.

“I know. It’s like… she was never here. I guess we really didn’t connect like we should have.”

He passes by Stiles and goes to the living room, setting up camp in one of the couches, and Stiles follows him there, sitting by his side and turning on the TV.

“You don’t love her, do you?” he says and winces almost at the same time, because of all the insensitive things to say he chooses that one.

John laughs though, loud and open, and stares at Stiles for a moment before turning his eyes to the TV again.

“I liked her. Her company, and her humor and it was nice. But I always knew it had more to do with not being alone than _her_. I must confess, Stiles, when you left, I was lost. My whole life had turned into you and work, and suddenly I didn’t have you anymore, and the town started to calm down. I didn’t have to work so much, you were doing fine at school, I thought you’d never come back here.”

“It was always my plan to come back here, dad. Our plan.”

“Well, yes, I listened to you kids talk about it once in a while, but how should I know it wasn’t in some far away future, like when you were retired? So, yes, I was alone, and Vanessa was here for me.”

“And now you’re not alone anymore, so she took off?” he asks incredulously, and John shrugs, taking a sip of his juice.

“For all that is worth, I think she was just with me not to be alone either. It wasn’t… It wasn’t like what I had with your mother. It wasn’t… you and Danny” he finishes quietly, and Stiles manages half a smile and looks at the TV again, not saying anything.

The thing is that sometimes, over the years, when Danny was fast asleep, or late from work because he was so excited about something new, or the rare fights they had, Stiles wondered more than once if he had made different choices, if he had stayed, or given Scott a chance, if he had looked for him again after their fight, whether he and Danny would have ever gotten together. They were good together, of course they were, but they sort of grew up together.

Sometimes he wondered if they were actually _it_ for each other, or if they were just so determined to make it work that nothing else mattered.

Weird how now that Danny wasn’t here anymore he had stopped thinking about it – he actually refused to even think about a relationship again.

Maybe it would always be too soon.

“I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you about something” his dad starts again a few minutes later, and Stiles hums to let him know he’s listening, “How are things going with Hale’s kid being in your class?”

“Oh, they’ve been fine. She’s adorable, really. Had her first sleepover this weekend, Derek showed up at my place freaking out that night, took me, like, twenty minutes to calm him down” he tells his dad with a small smile playing on his lips.

The Sheriff smiles but keeps staring at him for a moment before speaking again.

“You know, all these years you kids have been away, they actually stopped getting into trouble. Hale and Scott and the others who hung out with them. Scott, mainly. After the Argent girl moved out, I think I spent a good year without seeing him, you know, out.”

Stiles looks at his dad strangely for a moment.

“What’s your point, dad?”

The Sheriff shrugs.

“I ran into Melissa last week, at the hospital, when we were taking one of our guys in for an injury. She told me Scott misses you a lot” Stiles keeps quiet and stares determinedly ahead, “They’ve been fine. Calm. I know…” he sighs deeply before going on, “I know you stopped being friends with him because of something he had with that Hale kid, and I know I had a great part in that, because of how things were back then. I don’t think I handled it all that well, but I was scared, because people were dying, and my kid was in the middle of it, Stiles. That is _scary_ for a father. But I never meant for you to shut him out so completely that you guys never talked again. I was relieved when you calmed down, and God knows you’ve done a world of good to both Lydia and Jackson, and I don’t think any parent could have asked for a better boyfriend for their kid than Danny, but if you and Scott were to ever start talking again, if you _want_ that to happen, I want you to know I’m fine with that, okay? Not saying you have to do anything, just… letting you know.”

Stiles doesn’t answer for a few minutes, letting it all sink in.

“Melissa came by last night.”

John looks determinedly at the TV, as if afraid that if he looks at Stiles he’ll stop talking.

“Oh?”

“She came to tell me that Scott misses me. That he wants to talk.”

When it’s apparent he’s not going to elaborate, John nudges him a bit with his shoulder.

“And what did you tell her?”

“Something that if I repeat will get me into trouble. You’ll probably try to ground me.”

“Stiles!” his dad reprehends and Stiles laughs a bit.

“I don’t know, okay? I really don’t.”

“Okay. But if you do…”

“You’re okay with it. Got it” he tells his dad with a nod, and they fall in silence again, watching TV until the Sheriff has to go to work, and Stiles gets back home.

He refuses to think about the whole Scott thing.

It’s too… soon.

**X**

“Daddy?”

“Yes, Laura?”

“Can I have a question?”

“Can I _ask_ a question, Laura, and yes. What do you want to know?”

“Why don’t you have a wife?”

Derek stops pouring milk into Laura’s bowl of cereal for her breakfast and turns very slowly to stare at her, who’s sitting innocently on her chair, waiting for her Froot Loops.

“A wife?” he repeats, and Laura nods at him, very seriously.

“Yes. ‘Cuz Kate’s dad has a wife. And Kyle’s mom has a wife too. You should have a wife.”

“Kyle’s mom has a husband, honey” he tries to correct, but Laura is shaking her head.

“No, she has a wife. Everybody has a wife” she tells him spreading her little arms out, as if to show him the huge amount of people who have wives.

“Not everybody has a wife. Uncle Scott doesn’t have a wife” he points out, “Uncle Boyd doesn’t have a wife. Aunt Melissa doesn’t have a wife” he keeps talking, and sets the bowl in front of her.

She spoons some cereal into her mouth, chews and swallows before going on. Derek is at the table with his own breakfast, but he knows he’s not getting away from this conversation just because she has food now.

She just isn’t that kind of kid.

Not anymore, anyway.

“Can Aunt Melissa be your wife?”

“God, no, Laura. She can’t.”

“Because she’s old” his daughter tells him, nodding, as if agreeing with his judgment, “Uncle Scott could be your wife.”

“Husband, honey. He could be my… but he isn’t going to be. Uncle Scott likes girls.”

“Kyle’s mom likes girls too! That’s why she has a wife.”

“That’s very wise of her.”

He would give _anything_ not to be having this conversation right now.

Anything.

“It’s not fun to be alone, daddy. I don’t like it anymore. It’s fun to play with the others” she tells him, and Derek feels incredibly guilty for keeping her just to himself for so long, but, well, she has friends now, right?

“But you are not alone. You have me, and Kyle and Kate” he tries very hard not to imagine a tall, beautiful blonde when he says that.

“And Mr. Styls. He’s mine too, right?”

“Yes, honey, he’s yours too.”

“Can he be my wife? When I’m big?”

“I don’t think so” he tells her, trying very hard not to laugh.

“Why not?”

“Because when you are old enough to have a wife, he’ll be old.”

“Like Aunt Melissa?”

Derek stares at the little girl on the chair, the perfect blend between him and Nicole and sighs deeply.

“Yes. Like Aunt Melissa.”

She frowns a bit, sighs and eats some more.

“Okay.”

Derek waits for a few more minutes, but that’s apparently all she has to say on that particular subject because a few seconds later she’s off about My Little Pony, and how she needs one.

He hopes she’s talking about the dolls and not an actual pony.

He also hopes this is the last of the marriage subject between them.

He’s not quite sure he can handle any more questions about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, let me know what you think!
> 
> Also, you can find me on [Tumblr](http://darkjan.tumblr.com/)


	7. Chapter Seven

**When it all falls apart**

**Chapter Seven**

It takes Derek about a week to gather enough courage to actually approach Stiles about the Scott issue.

It’s not that he thinks Stiles is going to hit him or something, but, being completely honest with himself, the thing is that he’s never been close to Stiles, ever – sure, they saved each other’s lives for a while, but that’s the extension of their interactions up until the day the man became Laura’s teacher.

How can you just barge the life of someone you have no intimacy with and ask them to give an old friend a chance to explain why their friendship is dead and buried? He’s not that good at talking – sure, he’s better than he was at it ten years ago, but still.

He promised his Beta he’d do it, though, and he has to keep his promise, not only because he’s trying to be a good Alpha, but also because Scott is a good man who has suffered too much, and lost too much for him to not even try.

Maybe what he needs is a true way to move on – even if he and Stiles end up not being friends again, this time Stiles will have all the facts before he decides to not have Scott in his life instead of just thinking his then best friend cast him out just because.

It would do both of them some good, all things considered.

He wakes Laura up and gets her ready for the day, taking in deep, calming breaths – by the end of today, he’ll approach Stiles about it.

**X**

“You do not need a house with six bedrooms, Lydia” Stiles sighs when he says it, because they’re having this discussion for the past fifteen minutes, and he has the feeling Jackson will start growling at any time now, “Because it’s impractical. You have already said you want just the one kid. You and Jackson will have one room, and one room for the kid you’ll eventually have, and one for guests, and, really, why do you need any more than that?”

This time, _Lydia_ almost growls at him, and Stiles stops listening, like he learned to do all those years ago, when he still tried to rationalize Lydia out of some idea by arguing with her on the spot. It’s just not done.

He lets her speak for a while longer, messing with his kitchen, trying to find something edible, but, truth be told, he has nothing in the house. He will have to order pizza again, and soon enough _he_ will be the one with the strict diet if he doesn’t start exercising soon with the way he’s been eating.

Lydia, apparently, has given up on arguing with Stiles and has turned her ire on to Jackson – who, really, should have been her target all along, seeing as _he_ is the one who’ll live with her, not Stiles – and Stiles says his goodbye and hangs up before things get ugly, as they tend to do between the two of them.

God, he even misses their fights.

He orders the pizza, takes a quick shower as he waits, and settles on the couch, trying to find something to watch on TV – his lesson plans for the week are done, and there’s no work to be done tonight, which is amazing because he’s dead tired and it’s only Monday. He’s on his way to his fourth piece of pizza when his doorbell rings and he goes to get it, thinking it’s probably his dad – the Sheriff has taken to showing up in the early evening when he can. They chat, watch some TV, talk, all in all it’s pretty nice.

He totally isn’t expecting Derek Hale at his doorstep.

Again.

“Uhm, hi” he greets awkwardly, staring at the man who looks as if he doesn’t want to be here either – which doesn’t even make sense, seeing as he _came_ to Stiles’s place.

“I was hoping I could talk to you” Derek gets out in a rush, as if he has rehearsed the sentence, “It’s nothing bad, but I promised I would talk to you, so I came to… talk. To you.”

The man actually looks embarrassed at the halting way he’s speaking, and Stiles fights a small smile.

“Sure. Come in” he invites, closing the door behind Derek when he gets in, “I was just…” he trails off, gesturing to the pizza box and the TV and Derek nods at him.

“Sorry I caught you at a bad time.”

“Not bad. It’s okay. Is everything okay with Laura?” he’s actually a bit concerned as he sits down and Derek takes it as a cue, sitting across from him on the couch.

“No, she’s great. Nothing wrong with Laura. I…” the man takes in a deep breath before going on, “Look, I know I was not very good at being an Alpha when you left the pack. I made mistake after mistake, and it was hard, but I learned some things along the way, and Scott is my second in command. He’s like a brother to me, and all I want is to make my pack happy – usually, that is an easy task, but Scott asked me… Actually, I offered to come and talk to you about him.”

“I’m going to stop you right there, because first Melissa, and then my dad and now you. Why doesn’t Scott come and talk if he wants to?”

“Because chances are that you are going to react badly to him, and… I didn’t know anyone else had already talked to you about it. It’s just… he wants to talk to you, Stiles, he was hurt when you stopped being friends.”

“Oh, yeah, because I was just great when that happened. Listening that I was useless, that I was no good for the pack I risked my life for daily, truly, one of the high points of my High School years” he shoots back angrily.

Derek’s eyes flash briefly, but Stiles doesn’t back down, he waits.

“It did get better since then, didn’t it? You didn’t have to risk your life. Your dad was safe. Lydia was safe, Jackson was safe. Danny was safe. Do you really think Beacon Hills just… got better all of a sudden? Do you really think nothing else ever happened here?”

“Well, if it did, it was your pack’s problem, wasn’t it?”

Derek sighs and runs a hand on his face, clearly looking like someone who really doesn’t want to be having this conversation at all.

“No, Stiles, it wasn’t. I lost count of how many times we had to stop things from going after Jackson because of what he had done back then, what he was before he turned right. How many things wanted to use Lydia for her ability, her immunity. How many things came after you because you were with them, or because they knew you were the Sheriff’s kid. Hell, how many times Scott pulled an all-nighter to keep an eye on your dad, so he wouldn’t get caught up in our fight when things got bad. Things didn’t magically get better, Stiles. It took time and effort, and it cost us all a lot – but not as much as it cost Scott. I lost everything already, from that time to now it only ever got better, because I have my pack and I have Laura, and I never thought I would have any of this, but Scott lost _everything_ but his mother. He did what he did because he wanted to keep you safe.”

Stiles shakes his head then, not knowing what to think.

“So, what? He hurt me to keep me safe? Is that it? And I’m supposed to accept that?”

“He never thought you _would_ accept that. He thought he would keep you away until the whole mess with the Alphas was definitely over, maybe a week or two, but, well, you moved on and he lost you. Sure, he and Boyd and Isaac are friends, but they are not _you_. They weren’t there with Scott before he became a werewolf, they weren’t there when his dad left” he makes a pause then, sighing deeply and looking away, “When he told us he wanted to keep you away, we started to keep an eye on you, the four of you, always. We protected you throughout High School, and then I actually though Scott would have a shot at being happy, because, well, he didn’t have to see _you_ being happier with Lydia and Jackson and Mahealani and then, a few years after that, Allison left and I swear to God I thought Scott wouldn’t pull through. If it wasn’t for his mother he wouldn’t have. He lost everything but her, Stiles. I’m not asking you to be his best friend again, I’m not asking you to invite him into your life and pretend the last ten years never happened, I’m not even asking you not to be hurt – I’m just asking that you give him a chance to talk to you. To let him explain himself, at least.”

Stiles is already shaking his head at that, and Derek looks exasperated.

“You’re not even going to let him tell you why he did it?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Of course it is! Let him explain himself to you, Stiles.”

“That’s not it, okay? You don’t know what it was like back then, what I was losing. Do you really think I didn’t consider calling Scott? Or that I didn’t miss him? Or that I somehow wondered if he hadn’t done any of that just to get me out of the line of fire? Of course I did, Derek, I’m not stupid! But things aren’t that simple, okay?”

“Then explain it to me.”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you” he tells the Alpha very calmly, “We weren’t even friends back then. I don’t even feel that I have to explain myself to _Scott_ who was actually my best friend, why would I have to tell you anything?”

“Because if you actually make sense, I promise you, I swear to you, I won’t let Scott bother you. Just give me a reason, a good, tangible reason for it.”

“And if I tell you this, you’ll leave me alone?” he asks, his tone disbelieving.

Derek nods at him, his face serious.

“I swear to you.”

Stiles takes a deep breath, thinking about a way to put into words how all those things felt so long ago, but, again, his doorbell rings, and he doesn’t even have to the time to get up and answer it when his dad barges in with the key Stiles left with him, for emergencies.

The Sheriff looks at him and Derek, and then takes a look at the half eaten pizza in front of them and arches an eyebrow.

“Am I interrupting your dinner?” his voice teasing and Stiles shakes his head fast, as Derek gets to his feet.

“No, sir. Actually, I interrupted his dinner about, well, just, school things. I’m going to go now.”

He nods at Stiles and leaves so fast Stiles is surprised there isn’t a trail of smoke behind him, like in the cartoons.

However, Derek’s retreat leaves Stiles with a smirking Sheriff.

“You won’t talk to Scott but you’ll talk to Hale?”

“He came by to talk _about_ Scott. Apparently, he has a whole lot of people ready to come to his defense.”

His father raises his hands in a surrender gesture.

“Not saying anything. Especially not saying anything if you let me have some of that pizza, seeing as I have a night shift.”

“Again?”

The Sheriff sighs, sitting down and picking up a piece.

“Vanessa is at the house today, she just had to take the rest of her stuff, and I think she doesn’t want me around, but she wouldn’t just tell me to leave, so…”

“So you’re avoiding the problem until it goes away.”

The Sheriff doesn’t answer and Stiles smirks, patting his dad on the back.

“I taught you well” he says, a proud tone in his voice, which gets him a push from his dad.

He’ll think about whatever Derek told him later.

**X**

In true Stiles fashion, he tries to ignore the whole Scott thing for a while, hoping it’ll go away, but, of course, he’s not that lucky, because he’s back in Beacon Hills, and Beacon Hills is not exactly the luckiest place for him in the world.

Lydia and Jackson come to town on Wednesday, finally deciding on a house – a four bedroom place, in the richest neighborhood, just far enough from both of their parents’ place that they won’t go crazy, but close enough that they are still in walking distance.

As Stiles lives literally ten minutes from his dad, he’s not pointing any fingers.

He goes with them to take a final inspection of the place – and mostly field Lydia’s dad’s questions about the whole thing, seeing as the man _hates_ Jackson and _adores_ Stiles, something he takes great pleasure out of, and he has to admit it’ll look pretty amazing once it’s decorated.

The parents eventually leave, and the three of them are left alone, sitting in a big empty living room, with a large window looking out on the small garden on front of the house.

“So, how are things here?” Jackson asks, sitting cross-legged on the floor, one of his hands in Lydia’s hair, the other supporting his weight as he leans back. Lydia has her head on Jackson’s lap, and is lying with her eyes closed, but Stiles knows she’s listening.

“Weird.”

“How weird?” she finally asks, cracking one eye open.

“Well, I told you about the freak out Derek had about Laura’s sleepover. After that, well…”

“What, Stiles? Spill it out.”

“Melissa McCall came to see me, asking me to talk to Scott.”

“Argh, so typical, you move back and they think you have to go back to the same friends you had back then” Lydia huffs.

“Well, my dad kind of told me to give him a chance too.”

“Your dad doesn’t know the whole story. Your dad doesn’t even know about werewolves, Stiles” Jackson points out, and Stiles sighs.

“Derek came to see me too. He made it sound so much… _bigger_ than it is. I mean, come on, it’s been so long, why would Scott even want to talk to me in the first place? It’s been, what, ten years? How can this be such a big issue for him?”

“It’s an issue for you too, clearly” Lydia points out, and Stiles sighs.

“Kind of, but not in the same way. I don’t like it that they’re trying to get me back or whatever it is. I don’t like being used; I don’t like being second place for someone else. I don’t want to feel like I used to feel when I was still in their pack. Or when I _thought_ I was in their pack. I’m pissed that they are making such a big deal out of this for him, as if I’m the bad guy, as if I’m breaking his heart or something.”

The couple is silent for a few seconds, and Stiles rolls his eyes.

“Oh, please. Not you too.”

“Look, God knows I don’t like it. For _years_ I resented them for everything that happened to us, but, look at it this way, okay?” Lydia starts, sitting up. Jackson is frowning, knowing he’s not going to like this, “We moved on, Stiles. We’re back because we _want to be_. We had the option of going, and we had each other through it all. We had fun at college, we despaired at our life choices at one point or another, we freaked out when nothing seemed to work, we got homesick, we missed our parents, we partied, we got sick, we crammed and we suffered and it was amazing, and in the end, here was still the place we wanted to live, to really grow our families in. But we left. We’re here by choice, and in the end, we lost very little.”

Stiles stares at her for second and Jackson is the one to put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him closer, comforting him.

“Little?” he asks, his voice a bit rough, his eyes itching.

“By our choices? Little. We lost a whole world with Danny, and you know better than anyone else how much we all miss him, but, Stiles, it was an accident. Not a werewolf, not a hunter, not him leaving us because he _wanted_ to. Of course we lost, but we lost Danny to fate. Scott lost you because he was stupid, and he lost Allison because she _wanted_ to go. He hasn’t changed, he hasn’t moved on, he’s still here, trapped, even working at the same place, even if now he’s a partner instead of an assistant, but, well, maybe you are all hope he has for moving on. Maybe he doesn’t even need you to be his friend again, but he needs some closure, any kind of closure – even if it’s just finding out you two will never be friends again.”

“I can’t believe you’re actually encouraging him to talk to that potato head” Jackson tells his fiancée angrily.

“I can’t believe you’re a _Lawyer_ and is actually calling someone a potato head.”

“I’m lowering the IQ of the conversation so Stiles will get used to his new best friend’s vocabulary.”

“Oh my God, Jackson, shut up. Even if I do end up agreeing to talk to Scott, it doesn’t mean we’ll be friends again. And even if we do eventually start talking again, he’s not going to be my best friend” Stiles turns to Jackson, staring right into his eyes, “It’s been ten years, Jackson. You’re my best friend, you’ve been it since the day you called me to let me know Derek had looked for you to get you back in his pack, and you told me you had friends, and included me in it. He can’t replace you.”

Jackson fights a smile and huffs.

“Of course he can’t replace me. As if _McCall_ of all people could ever replace me in anything.”

Stiles pushes Jackson to the floor with that, and Lydia gets up, muttering about stupid men who refuse to grow up.

Stiles feels better than he has in a long, long time.

He missed this.

**X**

Thursday afternoon, Derek actually apologizes for bothering him with the Scott thing when he picks Laura up at school, and Stiles just smiles and tells him it’s fine.

He also tells Derek he’s thinking about it.

The smile Derek gives him makes his heart jump in his chest in a way it hasn’t since… well, in a long time. He definitely is ignoring _that_ for the moment, seeing as he’s doing the grown-up thing and dealing with the Scott thing.

The fact is that _it has been ten years_. That is a long time to hold a grudge for a High School fight, and he certainly doesn’t intend to be dragged around in crazy, potentially life imperiling situations. He’s an adult, he has a house – he teaches kids, for crying out loud.

Talking to Scott is not going to change anything, unless he _wants_ anything to change.  

Ten years. Ten years and it still kind of hurts every time he thinks about Scott dismissing him like that, and it still hurts when he remembers the way it felt to know he was being pushed aside for Allison and Isaac.

Maybe he too needs some closure to move on.

By Friday evening he has made up his mind. He calls his dad, who calls Melissa, and makes both of them promise they won’t say anything, gets Scott’s number and sits by himself on his living-room, thinking about the right way to do this.

 _I’m texting Scott_ he sends Lydia and Jackson.

 _Good luck_ _J_ it’s Lydia’s response.

 _Got your English to Dummy dictionary on you?_ It’s Jackson’s.

He smiles at his phone and then takes a deep breath.

_Want to come over for breakfast tomorrow? 9 is fine._

He hits send and puts his phone in the bedroom, not wanting to keep watching it, like he _knows_ he’ll do if it’s near him.

 _Que sera sera_ , right?

**X**

Work at the clinic is always a bit hectic, because Scott doesn’t possess the ability of _not caring_ about stuff. He gets emotionally involved, and then if something happens to the animals they are taking care of, he gets upset and nervous and has a breakdown when he can’t get them back to their little feet – it’s all very funny for other people, but to Scott it is extremely upsetting.

On Friday, he’s actually feeling pretty good about himself – he and Deaton saved a Siberian Husky that afternoon, and no other major cases showed up, so they are mostly doing some paperwork, which is supposed to be evenly split, but he always gets the feeling that Deaton somehow slips him more than he should get. He doesn’t really complain though, being the younger partner and all.

Plus, Deaton has saved his ass so many times he can deal with a little extra paperwork for the man.

His phone beeps suddenly, and he frowns, not expecting anything. He talked to Derek that afternoon, his mom and him are having dinner in a couple of hours, Isaac has left just a few minutes earlier, and Boyd is, as always, buried in work.

It’s a bit sad, but there really isn’t anyone else who’d text him.

_Want to come over for breakfast tomorrow? 9 is fine._

He stares at his phone, checks the message again, and his heart is beating so fast he starts to wonder if it’s possible for a werewolf to have a heart attack.

Slowly, a small smile starts spreading on his lips, and he literally pumps a fist in the air, leaving his small office.

“Allan, can you cover for me tomorrow morning? I know it’s my weekend, but—“

“Stiles finally agreed to talk to you” Deaton completes with a small smile, and Scott nods, feeling really happy.

The man smile at him and nods.

“You can work the next two weekends, no problem. Good luck.”

Scott nods his thanks, and gets his things to leave, too excited to just sit there and write anymore.

Now all he has to do is convince Stiles they can be friends again.

Should be easy, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, let me know what you think!
> 
> Also, you can find me on [Tumblr](http://darkjan.tumblr.com/)


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all - I really am sorry.
> 
> This took me waaaaay longer than I had planned, but, well, life got in the way something bad these past few, well, years, and I just didn't manage to write as I used to, which is why I've been sticking to oneshots and drables for such a long time.
> 
> HOWEVER - NaNoWriMo kinda cured me this year, and I think I'm back to writing long stories again. This was supposed to be my side project, for when I finished the story I had planned for NaNo, and still hadn't reached my 50k goal - little did I know that THAT story would become immense, going over 70k now, and even halfway done, but still coming steady.
> 
> So, this is like an apology/new chapter. I have this story done till chapter 12, and I think I may finish it around chapter 16, at the most. I'll post it every week until it's done, and I thank you all who stuck with me for such a long time, and for those of you reading this for the first time ever.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it <3

**When it all falls apart**

**Chapter Eight**

Making bacon shouldn’t be this difficult.

Stiles sighs and prepares to get another batch in the pan, staring at the clock and not knowing what to wish for – for it to be nine already, so he can get this over with, or that nine would never come, so he wouldn’t have to face Scott and… talk.

It still sounds weird to him, this _need_ Scott has to come and talk to him, to set things right. He should just let go, like Stiles did.

Or, at the very least, _pretend_ like Stiles does. It still hurts, no matter how long ago it was, but truth is that Stiles got the better end of the deal here, and he knows it. He so does. He went away and to college, he had Lydia and Jackson, and they are all he needs, at least where friendship is concerned. He doesn’t really like to think about how he never really made any new friends – neither did any of the others, really – or how the guy he knows was the love of his life was the very same one he started dating still in High School.

Danny had been good at that. He had made friends – everyone they went out with at college, everyone they met occasionally on weekends for brunch or parties or dinners: they usually came along with Danny, the one out of the four of them who could actually talk to new people, be friendly… trust.

It isn’t like he doesn’t trust anyone, not really – he trusts Lydia, Jackson, and his dad. The list is short, he knows, but how many people go their entire lives without having three whole people they could trust so completely?

Never mind his dad not really knowing what happened between him and Scott back then, never mind them keeping it a secret for their ears only – never mind not even the three of them ever really talking about it, never. It was over and done with, it was in the past.

The past can’t really hurt you if you don’t allow it.

Before he can really start rolling his eyes at himself for telling such a huge lie, the doorbell rings, and he sighs, asking for strength.

One breakfast. He can get through one breakfast and then he and Scott can go back to ignoring each other and not talking, and it’ll be over.

One breakfast.

Stiles doesn’t linger before opening the door, because after all these years with Jackson, he knows the werewolf on the other side can hear him just fine, and delaying it will just cause even more awkwardness.

Scott is on the other side, a hopeful smile on his face – not quite the one he used to have when they were teens, but close enough – carrying a bag full of blueberry muffins.

“Hey! I ah… brought these. Mom made them. She remembered you liked them, so…”

“Oh, uh, thanks,” Stiles tells the other man hesitantly taking the bag from his hands, and taking a step to the side, “Come in.”

Scott enters and they stand there awkwardly for a few moments, staring at each other.

“So, uh, the kitchen is this way,” he starts walking that way and Scott follows him, “I usually eat there, because it’s just me, there’s no pint in getting a whole other room dirty just to eat, you know.”

“Oh, sure. I do the same thing.”

“Right.”

It seems like there’s no end to the awkwardness level one can reach while talking to a estranged friend.

“So, you still like bacon, right?” he asks, talking fast and getting busy by the sink and the stove, trying to dissipate the uneasiness in the air, “I burned the first batch, but I’m making some more. You can sit, I’ll be done in a minute.”

Scott is quiet for the whole time he cuts the bacon, and Stiles suppresses a sigh – he doesn’t really know what to talk about. The guy _asked_ for a talk, he should be doing the talking, right?

“You never used to be very good with the cooking,” the other man eventually said, and Stiles turned to look at him quickly, before going back to watching the bacon in the pan.

“Oh, I learned by trial and error, but I got it eventually. Lydia can’t cook to save her life, and let’s just say it’s a good thing Jackson is a werewolf, because he was my test subject a couple of times, and that didn’t always end well.”

Scott laughed a little at that.

“Yeah, I can’t really picture Lydia cooking.”

“She can bake,” Stiles defends her friend, shrugging a bit, “Jackson can make a decent pasta, they won’t starve or anything.” He carefully avoids talking about Danny, and how he was the only one who could actually cook, but only the mood stroke him.

“Right.”

Silence falls over them again, and Stiles doesn’t really try to end it – he has his ADHD under control these days, he doesn’t need to be constantly talking anymore, even though it’s still his first impulse.

He’s going to wait it out. He focuses on arranging food on the plates, getting the plates on the table, and thinking about classes the following week.

Scott asked for one meal, and they are having breakfast, and if the guy doesn’t talk, well, no one else can accuse him of not giving him the chance he asked for – it’s not _his_ fault if Scott doesn’t use it.

He sets a plate with bacon on the table, along with Scott’s muffins and some coffee and other breakfast stuff, and sits down opposite Scott.

“Dig in!” he tells the man with fake enthusiasm, and Scott carefully picks a few strips of bacon and sets them on his plate, but doesn’t eat them.

He takes a deep breath, as if he’s strengthening himself for something, and looks up, straight at Stiles, who stops pouring coffee for himself, and stares back at Scott.

“I never meant for us to grow apart as we did,” Scott starts, and Stiles doesn’t respond. He know this. He so knows this – and if Scott thinks them growing apart was _his_ choice alone, then he’s sorely mistaken, Stiles is plenty aware that it was _his_ decision too, “I didn’t… I thought saying those things to you would make you hate me for a bit, but that we’d have a chance to… fix it later. To go back to being friends.”

“I know that,” he answers calmly, taking a sip of his coffee, “I’ve always known that, and if you think our argument at the hospital was the only thing that pushed us apart then you’re still wrong ten years later.”

Scott is already shaking his head even before Stiles finishes talking.

“I know. I didn’t back then, mostly because I didn’t really _think_ about us back then, because for me, it was a given. For me, we would _always_ go back to being friends, I would _always_ have you there, you would _always_ have my back. For me, that fight was just one more stupid thing we did to save our own skin, like we always did back then. If I had thought for a _minute_ that it would turn into what it did _…_ ”

“But you didn’t,” Stiles cuts him off with a small laugh, shaking his head almost bitterly, “You didn’t, because you took me for granted. _That_ , Scott, was the problem. Not you hurting me to keep me safe, or whatever crap you told yourself back then, but because for you, hurting me was okay, because _I would always be there_ ,” he throws Scott’s words back at him, and the other man flinches, as if physically hurt, “I know we were sixteen and stupid, but the amount of times you left me hanging, man... that’s kind of tough to let go of, you know?”

“Stiles, I know it’s no excuse, but… I was trying, dude, I really was,” Scott’s eyes are earnest and honest, and Stiles can’t quite shake the feeling that this feels a bit like coming home too, more than just _being_ in Beacon Hills had done for him until now, “But things were hard and we were always in danger and—“

“And I always had your back,” Stiles interrupts, softly but determinedly, “Always. That time I called you, and you hung up on me, because Kate _might_ be coming after you and Allison? Scott, the _Kanima_ was in that swimming pool after us, I threaded water for two _hours_ holding Derek up, and you hung up on me. The Kanima could have killed us both.”

“And yet, Jackson is your friend now.”

“Jackson and the Kanima aren’t the same thing,” he tells Scott firmly, narrowing his eyes at him, letting the man know this is not a line of conversation he’ll allow, “Jackson and his wolf are one, but that thing wasn’t him.”

Scott is quiet for a bit, then he sighs, running a hand through his hair.

“I’m sorry. I should have handled that thing better, I was…”

“It wasn’t because of the trouble, Scott, it was never that. I would never run and hide from problems that I helped cause – hell, _I_ was the one who dragged you to the woods the night you were bitten. It was the always being left behind. It was the always not knowing. The always being ignored in favor of a crush – and that _is_ all that was. It ended just as we _knew_ it would.”

“ _We_ didn’t know anything,” Scott comments, smiling a bit, and Stiles snorts in response.

“Yeah, _we_ didn’t. Derek did, though. He warned us. You.”

Scott nods, looking down, pretending to be distracted by the food in front of him, but really thinking.

“We couldn’t really make it work because of _what_ I am, what I had to do, the people I chose to associate with – the pack, really,” he tells Stiles, shrugging a bit, “We found a rhythm, after you… left us. Well, not really left us, but you know,” Stiles nods, because yes, he does know. They were living in the same town, going to the same school, and yet it had felt like two different realities, and he liked it like that, “We tried to keep you guys safe,” Scott says in a tiny voice, almost a whisper, “We tried to keep the people we loved safe,” he stops talking for a moment and looks up, staring at Stiles again, who just looks back at him calmly, waiting. Scott wants to talk, let him talk. It won’t do him any harm, but it also won’t change whatever it is they have now, “A few months after the whole hospital thing, you and Danny were already together by then, and Lydia and Jackson were stronger than ever, I told the others why I had done it. Erica was so _pissed_ , man. She told me a best friend should never use the things we fear the most against us, and that it was what I had done. I didn’t really think about it like that until that day. Boyd just stared a lot back then, he didn’t use to talk much, still doesn’t, really, but I could feel him judging me,” he stops then, sighing and running a hand through his hair, messing it up a bit, “Derek got it, though. He called me an idiot, but he got why I did it, even though he told me I should have handled things better.”

Stiles doesn’t say anything for a while, but Scott keeps staring at him, as if willing him to talk.

“What do you want me to say, Scott? That I forgive you? That it’s all forgotten because your heart was in the right place?”

Scott shrugs, looking at his food.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what I want from you, really, except that not having you in my life sucks a lot, and that I missed you all these years, and that I was a complete jerk to you, and I’m sorry.”

It’s Stiles’s turn to sigh then, shaking his head a bit.

“I don’t think there’s anything to forgive, you know? You hurt me, yeah, but… That argument was just the tip of the iceberg. I wasn’t… I wasn’t happy, Scott, I wasn’t in a good place back then. Us fighting, and growing apart – that might as well have been the best thing that happened to me back then. I truly am happy with Jackson and Lydia and…” he stops talking then, swallowing dryly, “They are good friends. I feel like a jerk thinking back on it now, but it did me a world of good back then. I should kind of thank you, really. It wasn’t okay, and it doesn’t make what you did okay, but I’m fine. I don’t know what you want with this. We grew up, we grew apart – we have no way of knowing we wouldn’t have done this anyway even if we didn’t have that fight. How many people we know are still friends since High School, anyway?”

“You, Lydia and Jackson are. Me and Isaac and Boyd.”

Stiles snorts.

“Packs are different.”

Scott looks at him then, considering.

“Yeah, I suppose they are. I mean, humans in packs are supposed to have, you know, the same loyalty. The same will to keep close, to stay together.”

Stiles sighs then, feeling a bit sad even against his will.

“Her loyalty was always to her family first, Scott, even back then, even before all the shit with her mom. You knew that.”

“Yeah, but still. I’d have given up my life for her if she asked, and she just… left,” he looks at Stiles then, a bit insecure, “How did you manage?” his voice is curious, even if a bit cautious.

“Manage what?”

“To keep Danny from bolting,” Scott tells him in an unsure way, as if he’s not really sure what he has the right to ask, “I mean, you and Lydia aren’t… you know, but Jackson is, you three have been in there since the beginning, and the four of you were a pack for so long with no trouble. How did you manage to get Danny to just… accept it all?”

Stiles bites his lips for a moment, his breath a little shorter than it should have been, because this is the pain that never really goes away, the one that’s always there, just waiting for someone to say his name for it to be brought back to full force and make him almost sick with pain.

“We never told him.”

The sentence falls from his lips before he can think it through, and he stares at his plate, feeling Scott’s judgement from the other side of the table – bonus points for Scott for trying to hide it, though. Poor soul can’t hide his feelings to save his life, but at least he’s trying.

“Nothing at all?”

Stiles shakes his head.

“There was never really a good time. First, we just wanted to forget it all, then we started actually dealing with Jackson, and it became easier. His wolf would just settle down and everything would be okay without much fuss,” he shrugs, looking up and around, as if hunting for the rest of the sentence, “We didn’t fight, Scott. We didn’t have to go out there and… you know,” he tells his once best friend, willing him to understand, and Scott seems to, at least, “There was no point in telling him here, but we talked about it. Then we moved away and college was so good, and everything was just so… quiet,” he lets his voice trail off, smiling softly, and Scott smiles with him, “Lydia and I didn’t know what to do, and Jackson just let us decide. He told us we could choose, because he was the minority in our group, so.”

Scott laughs at that, and Stiles smiles again, a little less sad this time. He sobers up quickly after that, looking away.

“It just never seemed the right time. We let it go, it was not an issue,” he pauses, sighing deeply and looking down, a small bitter twist of his mouth, almost a smile, “There was always later. There was always time.”

“I’m sorry. About… about everything. It took me a long while to understand why you thought I was such a crappy friend, but by then we had already decided to… Anyway, I’m sorry for all of that, and I’m sorry for Danny. I didn’t know him very well, but you always looked happy when you were with him.”

Stiles just nods, not saying anything, and it kind of kills the mood that wasn’t great to begin with. He wants to ask things, he wants to know about Derek and Laura, he wants to know about the little girl’s mom, and he wants to ask about Peter, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to give Scott false hope – even now he’s not sure he can deal with being his friend again, with having all that crap from before thrown into his life again.

They eat the rest of the meal in relative silence, and finally, Scott gets up, thanks him for the meal, seems to be considering going for a hug but thinks better of it, and just nods, instead, leaving.

Stiles starts cleaning up the kitchen feeling strangely empty thinking about Danny – it’s different from before, though. It’s not just the weight of everything they thought of having in the future and now would never have, but the weight of everything they _didn’t_ have in the past, because a part of him, and a part of Lydia and Jackson, was never there for Danny to see.

He closes his eyes firmly, decided not to think about it.

Ignoring things until they go away suddenly seems a bit darker than it always has.

**X**

Derek ws used to the pack gathering at his place on Saturdays or Sundays, but it isn’t anything scheduled or official. Sometimes it’s just him and Scott, sometimes his mom is there too – Laura always underfoot, playing quietly around the house.

It isn’t really a surprise to see them all there when Scott gets back from Stiles’s, though – he knows they are just as curious as he is, not only because of their meeting, but about Stiles himself. When they cut the other three off, they did so completely, and now they want to know how their old friends are doing.

Either that, or they are just so used to being in each other’s business they just have to know.

Scott tells them about the meal, and their stilted conversation with true hope – he actually thought it could have been worse, it could have been a disaster, and it wasn’t. Scott thinks there’s hope for their friendship, even if he feels that they will probably never be the same as before.

It’s later that same day, when Laura is napping and Melissa has gone to work, Boyd being the first to leave right after lunch, and Isaac going out, that Derek and Scott sit at the porch of the house, beer in their hands out of habit, looking ahead.

“They never told Danny.” Scott’s voice is quiet, as if he’s trying to understand that piece of information himself.

Derek doesn’t answer, used to waiting for Scott to take his time forming his thoughts exactly, a care he developed after many mistakes he now knows could have been avoided if only he thought a little longer.

“About Jackson being a werewolf, or anything they went through here, before we stopped talking, nothing. They never told him,” he looks at Derek then, a frown on his face, looking earnest as always, no matter how much older he gets, that little boyish quality always coming back when he is concerned, “I mean, I get why, but. They couldn’t just leave it all behind, Jackson is one of us. And their closest friend never knew?”

Derek sighs and doesn’t answer, because he really, really doesn’t want to judge here. They are only just taking small steps towards maybe rebuilding something Scott and Melissa, mostly, had lost, and Stiles is, first and foremost, Laura’s teacher, but he is starting to realize that maybe the lives of the “other pack” aren’t as perfect as they had all assumed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hello on [Tumblr](http://darkjan.tumblr.com/)!


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently I live in a weird place, because I don't know how time works.  
> Sorry. :/

**When it all falls apart**

**Chapter Nine**

“So, how did it go with Scott?” Stiles’s dad asks him when they go out for lunch later that day. Stiles shrugs behind his curly fries, not really knowing how to answer it.

“He talked, I listened and… I don’t really know, dad.”

John looks up from his salad and raises an eyebrow, but Stiles doesn’t elaborate further, just shrugging again. The Sheriff seems to accept that as an answer, and Stiles is left with his own thoughts.

It’s not that he hates Scott or anything, it’s just that they aren’t friends anymore, and that is kind of a fact. It sucks and all, but it’s life. Adult life even – how many people can actually say they’re still friends with the people they used to hang out with when they were still in High School? Not that many. That they would _all_ still be friends is just an unreasonable expectation Scott has – he still has Isaac, and Boyd and, well, Derek, in a way, since they guy _was_ there for a long while during school. The guy should just… let it go.

He did.

Kinda.

Sure, his best friends are still Jackson and Lydia, but… Well, yeah, he knows he doesn’t really have a leg to stand on here, but he doesn’t want to _deal_ with Scott, and pack, and all of that stuff anymore.

He finishes up lunch with his dad, and they go their separate ways – John to pick up some things he would need in his house, now that Vanessa is gone (and her stuff is gone too), and Stiles goes home, to deal with planning this week’s lessons.

The week goes by with no further incident, except that Scott now has his number, and he had texted him a couple of times – it isn’t bad, but it is a bit annoying. He answers, though, because he doesn’t want to be rude.

Remodeling on Lydia and Jackson’s new place is done that week, and the couple would be moving in by Thursday, which would be great – for all that he tried very hard not to whine and complain too much during the past year, he really does miss having them around, and he has a feeling everything will be better now that they’d be living close by again.

All in all, it isn’t a bad week – although Laura and Kate terrorized some of their classmates, and he has to take a mental note to talk to Derek and also Kate’s parents as soon as he has the chance about talking to the girls at home that you shouldn’t call your classmate an egghead just because he liked wearing yellow hats.

Lydia and Jackson move back that weekend, and they have a barbecue on their new place to celebrate it on Sunday – it’s a bit awkward, because Jackson doesn’t really keep in touch with his parents all that much, and Lydia’s mom had decided to come at the last minute, which meant Lydia had invited her dad too, and they hadn’t really been in speaking terms since their divorce in Lydia’s freshman year in college.

John hadn’t told anyone about his separation from Vanessa, so there are a _lot_ of awkward pauses during lunch, but everyone goes home in one piece, and that’s more than they can ask for, usually.

“I swear to god, next time we’re hosting this kind of thing at your place,” Lydia mutters once the parents are all gone, and it’s just the three of them in the kitchen. Jackson is piling up plates as the other two watch, because Lydia had prepared all the salads, and Stiles had manned the grill.

“Eight people can’t fit in my place. There’s barely room enough for _me_ in my place.”

“Exactly,” Jackson pipes up from the sink, where’s his rinsing the glasses to put them in the dishwasher, “They’ll feel crowded and leave early.”

“Or they’ll feel suffocated and get even more ill-tempered,” Stiles says somberly as Lydia laughs quietly.

“What was up with your dad, anyway? Is he feeling bad about Vanessa leaving? Is he ok?”

“He’s fine, I think. He kind of says they hadn’t been connecting right, and that she wanted stuff he couldn’t give her… I don’t know. I think… Well, to be quite honest with you, I think he was never really in love with her, he just didn’t want to be alone in town. And now I’m back, so…” he shrugs, and Lydia sighs. She knows better than anyone how awkward and weird it can get to try and understand one’s parents’ love life. For all that Jackson’s parents are a bit absent and all, as a couple they work marvelously. It’s just the parenting thing they never really got a hang of.

“So…” she starts, changing the subject not to depress everyone in the kitchen, “Jackson and I are starting couples Pilates on Tuesday,” she tells him with a smirk, and he doesn’t have to be a werewolf to hear Jackson trying not to sigh and failing, “I read it’s a great way to keep fit, plus, it’ll help us bond as a couple.”

Stiles bites his lip to keep form laughing as Jackson turns around and leans against the sink, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I’m a werewolf, I don’t have the ability _not_ to be fit.”

“Plus, come on, Lydia, you two have been together since, what, freshman year of _High School_. If you bond any further, you’ll be permanently fused together.”

“You need to stop watching Gilmore Girls,” she teases him.

“Says the woman who recognized where the quote is from,” he teases back, and she smiles softly at him in a way he knows very, very well.

It’s the smile she used to have before he ever got together with Danny, when he still thought that maybe the two of them could have a shot. It’s the ‘you can get anyone _else_ , honey’ smile – back then it was because of her, nowadays, it’s because of Danny. He swallows dryly and, before she can start offering to introduce him to someone, or worse – decide _he_ should come to Pilates class with her instead of Jackson, to meet cute people at the gym, he gets up from his stool, and hugs them goodbye, using his classes as an excuse.

She frowns, knowing exactly what he’s doing, but lets it go, which is a blessing, because it’s not always that Lydia just lets him be when she thinks she knows better than him.

He better get used to have her meddling around again, now that they’re living in the same town once more.

When Stiles gets home, he takes a look around his place and sighs – there really isn’t much in his new house, to be honest. A lot of his stuff from _before_ is still in boxes in the small guest room, because he could never really unpack it all. It just kept getting harder and harder, and now it’s like a part of him is boxed up forever in that room, and he can’t even bear to get in there.

He has a feeling it won’t last much, though, now that Lydia and Jackson are back in his life more permanently.

He honest to god doesn’t really know how he feels about that.

**X**

Derek can’t say he’s surprised when Stiles asks him if he has the time to stay for a few minutes after class is over on Monday, so they can talk about Laura’s and Kate’s behavior towards some of their classmates, because surprised doesn’t even begin to cover it.

He’s _astonished_. He’s flabbergasted. He’s… He doesn’t even know what he is.

So he takes Laura’s backpack, and watches from the door as she plays with Kate and a few other kids, holding back a sigh – it’s so strange to have your kid grow up and _change_ , and he can’t get over the fact that if her teacher hadn’t called him, he would never know.

About ten minutes after he gets there, Kate’s parents also arrive, together, and he has a feeling they got a call, while he was just asked to stay behind – which could mean it was more informal, or that Stiles is avoiding calling him.

Or it could mean none of those things, and he’s just being paranoid, which is much more likely.

It takes about twenty minutes for all the kids to get picked up, and then Emily, Stiles’s assistant, goes home, and it’s just the four of them, while the two girls keep playing at the corner of the room.

They sit in front of Stiles’s desk, and Derek takes the minutes it gets everyone to go through pleasantries to look at the guy – he looks tired, but content. He knows Lydia and Jackson moved back that weekend, so he must be happy his friends, his pack, are back with him. The fact that he smiles calmly at the three parents calms him down a little, and he takes a deep breath.

“Thank you for coming, I promise this won’t take long at all, but I was always a fan of solving small things soon so they won’t _become_ a problem later on.”

Derek tries hard to disguise his snort as a cough, and is only partially successful if the warning look Stiles sends him is any indication.

“Did anything happen with the girls?” he ends up asking, almost at the same time as Kate’s mom speaks too.

“What did Kate do?”

Stiles smiles again, and shakes his head slightly.

“Everything is fine with the girls, and Kate didn’t really _do_ anything by herself,” he pauses, seeming to be considering his next words carefully, “The two of them seem to have found it funny to call one of their classmates an egghead, because he likes wearing a yellow cap. While this isn’t uncommon behavior for children, the fact remains that both Laura and Kate seem to be becoming leaders in their class – if they find something funny, the rest of the kids repeat it; if they invent a game, everyone wants to take part in it. And when they decide to pick on a classmate…”

“The whole class joins in,” Kate’s dad says in a tired voice, and Stiles nods.

“Exactly. Now, the girls aren’t bullying him, per se, it’s very likely they don’t realize they could be hurting his feelings with this, and the whole class did many projects today on thinking before acting, and trying to put yourself in someone else’s place, but I would like to ask you, if at all possible, to talk to the girls too – not in reprimand, but in a way to… incentive them to act in a more positive manner towards their classmates when possible. Children are children, but their personalities are clear at this age, and Laura and Kate have so much potential, they could use their leadership skills in a positive and bright way if encouraged.”

“Do you think some kind of punishment is needed? Grounding, or taking away some of Kate’s privileges?” Kate’s mom asks, and Derek turns to look at her in surprise.

If he has to do that, he won’t know where to start. He never grounded Laura – hell, he never really even reprimanded her.

Is he screwing up his kid? Is she growing up to be spoiled rotten, because he never took the time to realize he was raising a terror?

“I don’t think so. Of course, this is up to how you usually deal with this kind of thing, but this kind of behavior is terribly common at their age. They are figuring out who they are, they are developing a whole separate life from their parents, or previous caretakers, it’s perfectly normal that they act out – I just asked to talk to you now, so it won’t keep happening to the point where it could actually be a systematic thing. As far as I’m concerned, you have nothing to worry about. Just talk to them, and I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Stiles finishes with a calming smile, and the other couple seems to buy it, asking if there’s anything else, and taking Kate home after saying their goodbyes.

Laura is still engrossed in a book on the carpet at the corner, and Derek is having some trouble computing information right now.

“You look like you were hit by a truck,” Stiles tells him with a small twist to his mouth – it’s like he wants to laugh but won’t allow himself to.

“It’s just…” he pauses, not really knowing what’s the appropriate behavior here, should he ask questions, is that even a part of Stiles’s job as a teacher? “Does that happen a lot?” he ends up asking, and Stiles raises an eyebrow, clearly wanting him to clarify what he’s referring to, “Parents asking you if they should ground their kids, I mean.”

Stiles nods a bit, shrugging.

“A fair amount, yeah,” he smiles, then, his eyes sparkling in amusement, “It’s not just you, Derek, that is only now realizing that their kid is a separate person from yourself. You’re not the only one going through a whole lot of ‘My kid’s never done this’ or ‘I didn’t even know this was a thing’. It happens a lot, and first time parents usually freak out. Some run to their pediatrician to ask for advice, some run to their own parents, some turn to the teacher,” he finishes with another shrug, and Derek nods slightly, releasing a breath he didn’t realize he was holding until now, “It’s part of the job, and it does happen a lot more than you’d think. They aren’t the first parents to ask me if their kid should be grounded, and you’re not even the first one to freak out in my class this year.”

“I bet I was the first one to go freak out at your house, though,” his voice is slightly shaken, but Stiles laughs brightly at that.

“This year? Yup. Ever? Not even close.”

It’s Derek’s turn to laugh then, but he sighs soon after, looking at Laura.

“So, you think I should just talk to her?”

“Yeah,” Stiles agrees easily, “Laura is such a bright kid, she’ll understand it’s not cool – I actually think she already did, what with classes and all today. Now that she’s loosening up a little more, it’s common for her to act out a bit, test boundaries. It’s what kids do. Just try to make it clear it’s not cool because she could hurt someone else’s feelings, but try not to guilt trip her, or make her feel guilty. Keep it light and simple, and you should be fine.”

“Light and simple. Right,” he nods and gets up, offering his hand to Stiles, smiling at him, and the other man answers in kind.

There’s a tiny little part of him that doesn’t really want to let go, but there’s a knock on the door right then, and he jumps a little, startled, not even realizing how much he wasn’t paying attention that he was caught by surprise.

“Hey! Came to pick you up for dinner, Lydia is in Math mood, I need someone to feed me,” Jackson says from the door, and he and Derek nod at each other awkwardly.

Stiles smiles at his friend, but Derek isn’t paying attention anymore – he calls Laura, thanks Stiles again, and leaves, leaving the two men to their conversation.

As soon as Laura is stripped to her chair, on their way home, Derek takes a deep breath, and nods to himself. He can do this.

“Honey, why did you call one of your classmates an egghead?”

She looks up from her backpack, where she is looking for something, and frowns at him.

“Because he was wearing a yellow hat! Eggs are yellow.”

“Right,” he tries to think of a positive way to tell her she shouldn’t do that, but can’t think of anything good, “Don’t you think he’d be upset with that?”

“Why?” her frown deepens, “Yellow is pretty! And I like eggs! It’s Kate’s favorite food!”

Well, at least he now knows for sure that his kid isn’t really mean, just bad at compliments.

The apple _really_ doesn’t fall far from the tree.

“Well, Mr. Stilinski thinks your classmate got a bit upset at that, because he didn’t like it that all your other classmates were calling him egghead too. He doesn’t know that you two like yellow. And eggs,” he finishes, shaking his head at himself for having this conversation _at all_.

Raising kids is weird.

She is quiet for a moment, and he takes the time they are waiting for the traffic light to turn green to look at her on the backseat, where Laura seems to be considering something.

“Can I have a yellow hat?” she finally asks, and he smiles brightly, heading to the mall.

His kid is awesome.

**X**

“So, you make a whole thing about even talking to McCall, but being all buddy-buddy with Hale is ok?” Jackson’s voice is teasing, and Stiles flips him off before getting his things.

“It’s not like that. He was just freaking out about his kid being a person.”

“Oh… Those freak outs, right,” Jackson says, nodding along – he had been there for the first one of those, and it won’t be the last.

“Plus, Derek never did anything against me back then.”

“He bit _me_ ,” Jackson’s voice is a bit offended, but Stiles snorts.

“Yeah, because you _asked_.”

“Fair enough.”

Stiles is glad that as the years went by, they mostly managed to get over the crappy parts of their lives in Beacon Hills – Lydia doesn’t have anything against any of them, Jackson doesn’t really resent Derek – the only thing they were never really comfortable enough to joke around was Scott, but even that is such a minor inconvenience it’s fine.

They end up heading to Stiles’s dad’s house, and settle down to watch old games and chat – Jackson loves John, who took to him easily enough back then, and the man always felt a little sorry for the boy whose dad knew his message wasn’t really from him because it had ‘I love you’ at the end of it.

Tuesday is a good day – Laura comes in with a bright yellow hat and sits by Michael with a bright smile; Kate arrives five minutes later, frowns for about half a second before joining them, and the whole egghead thing is behind them, because that’s how kids work.

He gets home, takes a shower, gets himself some food and sits in front of the TV to watch something relaxing (and if he really is binge watching Gilmore Girls it’s none of Lydia’s business), when, at about eight, there’s someone knocking rapidly at his door.

He admits he’s a bit scared, but when he looks through the peephole, he sees Lydia and Jackson.

They get in and he notices Lydia is silently fuming, while Jackson looks a mixture of worried and pissed off.

“What is it?”

“You’re going to have to call Hale, and ask for a meeting with us or something. I don’t know how this is supposed to work.”

“What? Why?” he asks, frightened already.

“Well, because we said we wouldn’t get into any of this supernatural crap, and I’m pretty sure the Pilates instructor is some kind of electricity demon,” Jackson says.

Damn Beacon Hills, man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [You know where I am](http://darkjan.tumblr.com/)!


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you guys don't get confused, I haven't yet watched the last six episodes of Season 5 - I just know what Parrish is, but not his role in the whole mess. And as this is a different plot line than the show itself, and nothing after season 2 actually happened (God, this story is old, I'm so sorry), the species are kept, but none of the trouble attached to it will have a part in this.
> 
> I think.
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter!

**When it all falls apart**

**Chapter Ten**

“How do you even know that?” he finally finds his voice as they sit down around the table and Lydia gets them all some water.

“The stink of ozone was a huge give away. Also, there was something… around her? When I looked at her, you know,” Jackson says, referring to his werewolf vision.

“Holy crap. Are you sure Derek doesn’t already know? Maybe she’s a part of the town already?”

Lydia is already shaking her head.

“She mentioned she was hired two weeks ago, she just came into town. I don’t think she even noticed Jackson, really, but there _was_ something weird with her, even I could feel it. I know Beacon Hills has been calm and all, but it’s better we let the people responsible for this kind of crap know about it before it turns into something, right?”

“And Derek is responsible for stuff since when?” Stiles asks in surprise, and Lydia stares at him as if he’s stupid.

“Since we cut ourselves from that crap, and they dealt with the whole thing on their own,” she says firmly, “I’m not saying I want any part in it, because I didn’t back then, and I don’t now, but I _am_ grateful for the fact that they kept us away from that bullshit. Plus, maybe she isn’t even trouble. She could just be settling down in this calm little town in California, we don’t know.”

He taps his nails against the table for a moment, thinking things through.

“And why do _I_ have to talk to Derek?”

“Uhm, because you already do?” Jackson points out dryly, shrugging when Stiles glares at him, “What? You do! Plus, it’s either you or Lydia, I don’t want to go to him.”

At that, the other two stare at Jackson, because his tone is betraying something that he’s hiding.

“Why not?” Lydia asks, and the man sighs, having lived with her long enough that he knows it won’t do him any good to try and lie his way out of this.

“Because I feel… weird when he’s around. Maybe it’s the bite, maybe it’s the fact that he’s another pack, I don’t know. I don’t _want_ to know _._ Can you please just talk to him?”

Stiles scratches his head nervously, not liking this one bit. He likes his quiet life, he likes not being in this shit.

Argh!

“Fine! I’ll talk to him tomorrow, after class. He always comes to pick up Laura.”

“Thanks,” Jackson tells him quietly, squeezing his shoulder in gratitude.

They end up watching too much TV and eating Stiles out of house and home, before the couple leaves, and Stiles goes to bed.

The next morning, he’s at school earlier than usual, and greets the parents distractedly, until Derek arrives.

“Emily, can you handle the kids for a minute? I’ll be right back.”

His assistant nods, helping the kids with their backpacks, and he goes to where Derek is kissing Laura’s forehead.

She shoots past him with a yelled “Hi, Mr. Styls!” and he smiles brightly, heading over to her dad.

“Hey, so, uhm, I have a thing I need to talk to you about, it’s nothing to do with Laura, noting bad or anything, but could you stay today after class, when you come to pick her up?”

Derek frowns in worry.

“Did anything happen?”

“Not really. Just some information Jackson thought you should know.”

“Oh,” the other man relaxes a little, “I won’t pick her up today, she has a playdate with Michael, apparently,” he sighs longsuffering and weary, and Stiles wants to laugh at his face – and also hug him, but that’s weird, so he won’t, “There’s a note with the permission slip for his parents to take her too. Maybe you could come to the house when you’re done? I’ll be home all afternoon.”

The house. The Hale house. The remodeled Hale house he hadn’t even gone by to take a look at because he feels so weirdly about the place.

“Okay, sure. I’ll be by after four, is that ok?”

Derek nods.

“Yeah,” he smiles at Stiles and he smiles back.

They both just realize they are kind of standing there, smiling, when one of the kids yells, and breaks them out of their funk.

“Ok, I gotta go. See you later,” he waves awkwardly and goes into the classroom.

Smooth, Stilinski, smooth.

**X**

The house is huge.

It’s only one story high, but it spreads out – immaculate white with a big, old blue door and white windows.

It’s beautiful.

Stiles isn’t very sure what he was expecting, and realizes Derek couldn’t possibly be raising Laura in the charred remains of his family’s death tombs, but this is not what he was expecting at all – airy and bright and well taken care of.

He sighs and leaves his car, walking slowly to the front door, taking the whole place in – there’s a small garden on either side of the walkway, and there’s grass on both sides of the house, spreading towards the backyard, in what he assumes to be a huge space for Laura to run around. He smiles, glad that Derek has this now, and knocks.

It doesn’t take long for Derek to answer the door, looking a bit worried, with his phone in his hand, as if he’s expecting a call – Stiles can bet it’s because Laura is at a friend’s house.

“Hey. Come on in.”

“Thanks.”

He follows the man inside, and Derek takes them to a spacious living room, gesturing for him to take a seat, as he does the same, and then he just stares at Stiles expectantly.

“So,” he starts, gathering his nerve, “Lydia and Jackson moved back last week, and Lydia decided to start couples Pilates, god only knows why, because, well, werewolves, but she did. And because she wants to do it, Jackson went along with it, because in the long run, it hurts less,” he pauses to breath, and realizes Derek is staring at him with an eyebrow raised, intrigued. He should get to the point soon, before Derek thinks he made this up as an excuse to show up at his place – which wouldn’t even make sense, because Derek was the one who invited him, but, anyway, “So their first class was yesterday, and it ended at eight, and they came to my place after it, both of them were _really_ freaked out, because, apparently, the Pilates instructor is a demon.”

“A demon?” Derek asks, looking more doubtful than freaked out, which, well, could either be due to the fact that he’s been taking care of the crazy from Beacon Hills for over ten years now and is used to it, or to the fact that he doesn’t believe Stiles and thinks _he’s_ crazy. It could be a little bit of both, too.

“That’s what Jackson says. He told us it looked like she had a kind of… aura? Around her? When he looked at her, you know, with his eyes all changed, and stuff,” he’s well aware his answer sounded like a question, but he’s out of practice with this, “He said electricity demon, to be more precise.”

Derek is quiet for a long moment, before staring at Stiles, his eyes serious.

“Why did you think to tell me about it?”

“Jackson did it, actually. But I would have suggested it, anyway,” he shrugs, “You’re the Alpha around here. I’m not sure how that works when there are other species involved in the game, but it does count for something, right? Plus, what would _we_ do about it? We haven’t dealt with this kind of stuff since… Well, you know,” he finishes lamely, but Derek only nods.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

There’s a long, awkward pause in there, in which Derek looks at him as if he’s trying to figure him out, and all he can do is sit there, fighting not to squirm. Finally, the other man sighs and gets up.

“I should go there, try to talk to her before picking Laura up.”

Stiles gets up too.

“Do you want me to come with?”

Why is he offering?

He doesn’t want to come with, he doesn’t want to be in the middle of this madness again! Why is he offering? WHY IS HE OFFERING?

“Do you want to?”

“Yeah. I really do.”

He doesn’t.

At least he thinks he doesn’t – but Derek doesn’t look at him weirdly or anything, and he can pretty much feel his heartbeat fast and steady as always, and he’s not lying.

He really, really doesn’t want to get into the whole ‘I’m lying to myself’ thing, so he doesn’t say anything else, just follows Derek out the door.

They go in their own cars, because Derek will have to pick up Laura after this, and it would be out of Stiles way to bring them both back to the preserve since he would already be in back in town. Derek follows him, and soon they get to the gym.

They get in together, and Derek smiles charmingly at the receptionist, asking for their Pilates instructor, and mentioning he’s thinking of taking some private classes, maybe they could talk?

“Oh, you’re in luck, she’s in the break room now, her next class doesn’t start for another twenty minutes.”

They thank her, and follow her directions to the break room.

There’s a young woman there, shouldn’t be older than Stiles, with black hair and pale skin. She has Asian features and seems cute and adorable, and Stiles turns to stare at Derek and sees his eyes fading back to its usual… impossible myriad of colors, but he won’t get into that now.

The man looks at him with an eyebrow raised, as if to say, ‘Hell, Jackson was right’, and Stiles shrugs at him.

“Hey!” the woman finally notices them and greets them both with a bright smile, “Can I help you guys?”

“We’re looking for the Pilates instructor?” Derek says, and she nods.

“Oh, that’s me! I’m Kira. Are you looking for classes?”

Derek takes a step further in to the room, and Stiles very carefully closes the door behind them both, to give them some privacy.

“Not exactly. I’m Derek Hale.”

Before he can go any further, she smiles at him again, brightening up.

“Oh, the Alpha! I was going to look for you last week, but my apartment had an electricity problem – ironic, right? – and then I had to get that fixed, and my cat kind of decided to redo my curtains, so I had to buy new ones, and it was all a mess, but I was going to look for you! It was the other one, Jackson, right? Who told me about you? Are you in his pack too?” she fired the last question at Stiles last, and he shook his head – man, the girl could talk.

“Uhm, not really. Jackson is my friend. I’m Stiles,” he says awkwardly, and she nods again, still smiling.

“Oh, yeah! The Sheriff’s son, right? Jordan told me about you, but I didn’t know you were, you know, _into_ this.”

“Into this?” he repeats.

“Yeah. I mean, Jordan – Jordan Parrish, you know? The Deputy? We met a while back, I was still in High School, and he helped me out a bit, so he told me Beacon Hills was a cool place to live if you were, you know, different. I do know he’s the Sheriff’s liaison with our kind of stuff, but he didn’t mention you were in the town’s Alpha’s pack.”

He just stares at her incredulously, taking a small step back, as if to ward off Kira’s words.

Derek looks a tiny bit uncomfortable, but confused too.

“So, you came here because Parrish told you too?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t look for you sooner, it’s just… This is all pretty complicated, maybe we could arrange a meeting later today? And I can make a better impression than I seem to be making right now, because Stiles looks like he’s still freaking out?” she says, slowly taking a small card from her bag on the table and giving it to Derek, who stares at it for a second.

Stiles doesn’t even answer, still processing the information.

“Sure. I’ll call you and set it up.”

“Ok! I have to go now, set up for my next class,” she waves awkwardly and leaves them.

Derek takes Stiles by the arm and gently guides him out of the gym to their cars.

“You heard it too, right? She did say liaison with the _Sheriff_ , not the Sheriff’s _department_?”

“I did.”

It does make Stiles feel a little bit better that Derek seems to be in the dark about this too.

“Do you… Are you…” he starts, but doesn’t really know what to ask.

“No! I have no contact with your dad, at all, Stiles. I never did,” he takes a deep breath and shakes his head, evidently pissed off, a little bit of the old Derek showing up, and it makes Stiles want to laugh, but he doesn’t, because he knows it wouldn’t be well received now, “Parrish moved here about five years ago. He got a job at the station, and he came to us when we had a small problem with some stray Alphas. He keeps us informed of what goes on at the department, things we could help out with, and in turn, we help him. It’s been years since we had any real trouble, though – just the occasional hunter trying to stir things up, a couple of creatures who want to live somewhere safe, that’s it. I only ever deal with him, though.”

“But she did say…”

“She did,” Derek confirms it, staring at him worriedly, “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m… It’s gonna be fine. I’ll head over to his place, and… talk,” he trails off, chuckling darkly to himself, “This god damn town, I swear,” he mutters before turning back to Derek, “Hey, what _is_ Parrish, anyway? I’ve seen him around town, he doesn’t look, you know, wolfy.”

Derek snorts, but there’s a small smile on his lips before he answers it.

“He’s a Hellhound.”

“The keeper of dead souls thing?” he says, surprised as Derek nods.

“Yup. He catches fire too, when he’s angry, and he sleepwalks in times of battle.”

Stiles stares at Derek, trying to decide if he is joking or not, but he doesn’t seem to be.

“Aren’t Hellhounds supposed to be dogs?” he asks quietly, already heading to his car, but Derek hears him anyway.

“That’s speciesist!” The comment is made with a small laugh, and Stiles can only stare as the other man gets in his own car and drives away with a small wave at him.

He decides not to go home right away, detouring to his dad’s place – he and his dad are going to have a very serious talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [You know where to find me.](http://darkjan.tumblr.com/)


End file.
